Ostrearium genus est grex paraphyleticus bivalvium quae homines ad comedendum quaerunt, venditant, saepe colunt, quae etiam incocta sumere solent. Per orbem terrarum anno 2015 ostreorum omnium generum 5 321 737 000 chiliogrammata venditata sunt, pretio dollarium 4 094 411 000. Anno 2019 per aquacultura chiliogrammata 6 126 000 000 venditata sunt, pretio dollarium 7 243 000 000; eodem anno chiliogrammata 134 000 000 ostreorum incultorum per capturam venditata sunt, pretio dollarium 174 000 000.
Aenigma GraecumHellenisticum papyro servatum, cui "ostreum" respondet, sic reconstructum est:
μνονος Αἰθιοπῆος ὅπου χυτὸν ἤρίον ἐστίν
[ . . .
... ]ης δ' ἀδάμαντοπὶ σπιλάδεσσι τιθήνει,
Ἀγροτέρης ἐραταῖς λαμπάσι τερπόμενον·
θη δ' μὶ βροτοῖσιν ἀφέψαλος, ἡνίκα Δωσοῦς
ος νδιχάσῃ ῥινοτόροις βέλεσιν
("Prope tumulum Memnonis Aethiopis non Nilus me nutrivit sed Pontus Helles virgineae ad scopulos adamantinos dum radiis Agroterae perfundor. Igne expers dapes sum mortalibus, cum Dosus sponsus mihi cutem cultello desecet.") Memnonium prope Abydum ad litus Hellesponti suggeritur; ostrea Abydi scriptores Graeci Romanique saepe laudaverunt. Aenigma Anglosaxonicum, saeculo fere X scriptum, ostreum simili modo annuit (apud Britannos eius aevi species Ostrea edulis tantum cognita est):
Sæ mec fedde, sundhelm þeahte,
Ond mec yþa wrugon eorþan getenge
Feþelease; oft ic flode ongean
Muð ontynde. Nu wile monna sum
Min flæsc fretan, felles ne recceð,
Siþþan he me of sidan seaxes orde
Hyd arypeð, ec hrþe siþþan
Iteð unsodene ead
("Mari nutrita, sub litore celata, Frigido undarum amplexu prehensa, Sine pede, saepe fluctu Labra distendi: homo iam cutem osteosam A meo latere claro cultello Detondet carnemque meam Crudam avide haurit").
Ostrea aevo tam antiquo quam recentiori cruda comedi solent.
Qui ostrea ad comedendum parent variis modis utuntur. Testis etiam latentes simplicissime craticula torrentur. Testis apertis furno assantur; in testis suis bulliantur.
Coqui farcimen ex ostreis parantur. Ostreae apud Sinas desiccantur; in Europa variis modis condiuntur. Ex ostreis liquamen conficitur et venditatur. Iusculum ostrearum ad tempus paratur.
↑Diversa servicia no. 73 (Constance B. Hieatt, Sharon Butler, edd., Curye on Inglysch pp. 59-79) ("oystryn in bruet"); {{ec|id=Liber cure cocorum|c=Liber cure cocorum (Richard Morris, ed., Liber cure cocorumpp. 53-54) ("oystere in browet"); Potage Dyvers I (British Library, MS Harl. 279, c.1420) (Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books 1888, pp. 5-56) p. 23 ("oystrys in bruette")
↑Forme of cury no. 124 (Constance B. Hieatt, Sharon Butler, edd., Curye on Inglysch pp. 93-145) ("oystres in grave"); Potage Dyvers I (British Library, MS Harl. 279, c.1420) (Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books 1888, pp. 5-56) p. 13 ("oystres en gravey; oystrys in gvy bastard"); Potage Dyvers II (British Library, MS Harl. 4016, c.1440) (Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books 1888, pp. 69-107) p. 100 ("oystres in gvey")
George C. Matthiessen, Oyster Culture. Oxoniae: Fishing News Books, 2001. ISBN 0-85238-279-0
Ramasamy Santhanam, Biology and Ecology of Edible Marine Bivalve Molluscs (Apple Academic Press, 2018) pp. 20-86 et alibi (Paginae selectae apud Google Books)
Clyde L. MacKenzie et al., edd., The history, present condition, and future of the molluscan fisheries of North and Central America and Europe. 3 voll. (NOAA technical report NMFS no. 127-129. US Department of Commerce, 2017) vol. 1vol. 2vol. 3
"Des huîtres d’été" in Les Cahiers de la gastronomie n° 17 (2013?)
"Oyster" in Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxonii: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-211579-0) pp. 562-564; Tom Jaine, ed., 2a ed. 2006; 3a ed. 2014
M. F. K. Fisher, Consider the Oyster. Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1941
Rowan Jacobsen, A geography of oysters: the connoisseur's guide to oyster eating in North America. Novi Eboraci: Bloomsbury, 2010. ISBN 9781596918146
Cathy Moser Marlett, Shells on a Desert Shore: Mollusks in the Seri World. University of Arizona Press, 2014 (Paginae selectae apud Google Books)
John R. Philpots, Oysters, and all about them. 2 voll. Londinii: John Richardson, 1890-1891 Vol. 1vol. 2
Drew Smith, Oyster: a gastronomic history. Novi Eboraci: Abrams, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4197-1922-6
Rebecca Stott, Oyster. Londinii: Reaktion Books, 2004. ISBN 1-86189-221-7
Máirín Uí Chomáin, Michael Ó Meara, Oyster Gastronomy. Connemara: Artisan House, 2017. ISBN 9780992690878
Praecepta culinaria
saec. IV? : Apicius sive De re coquinaria1.12, 9.6, 9.11 (Christopher Grocock, Sally Grainger, edd., Apicius. A critical edition with an introduction and an English translation pp. 136, 292, 296)
saec. XV ineunte : Viandier: manuscriptum Vaticanum (Terence Scully, ed., The Viandier of Taillevent: an edition of all extant manuscripts no. 82, 148) ("civé d'oistres; oestres")
1615 : I. M., A New Booke of Cookerie ... London Cookerie (Londinii: John Browne, 1615) Editio interretialis ("To sowce oysters; To make an oyster pye; To frye mussels, perywinckels, or oysters, to serue with a ducke, or single by themselves")
1654 : Jos. Cooper, The Art of Cookery Refin'd and Augmented, containing an Abstract of Some Rare and Rich Unpublished Receipts of Cookery collected from the Practise of that Incomparable Master of These Arts, Mr. Jos. Cooper, Chiefe Cook to the Late King. Londinii: R. Lowndes (pp. 32-33, 45-46, 61-62, 72-73, 102-103 apud Google Books)