Topped oysters make top oysters. These sea-salty bivalves make good friends with fresh and zingy dressings, smoky bacon, and gentle heat from horseradish and chilli. And as always, butter, especially Analiese Gregory’s seaweed butter, makes everything better (oysters included). These are the best oyster dressing recipes around, and they’re guaranteed to please this holiday season.
Buy a dozen or more of the most popular varieties this festive season and shuck on.
Best oyster dressing recipes for summer

Victor Liong’s Pacific oysters with sea treasures
“An opulent, easy starter that showcases the bounty of local seafood.”

Warrigal greens Rockefeller
Classic Rockefeller oysters, balanced out by South Australian warrigal greens.

Leigh Street Wine Room’s oysters with pepperberry mignonette
A classic dressing, with a little twist.

Barbecued oysters with bacon-chilli-tamarind sauce
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for barbecued oysters with bacon-chilli-tamarind sauce.

Bennelong’s oysters with lemon-pepper granita
It’s the classic pairing of oysters with lemon, but with a little elegant tweak.

Oysters with pomegranate dressing
An oyster combination that tastes as good as it looks.

Oysters with two sauces
Add a little zing to your oysters with two vibrant mignonettes.

Analiese Gregory’s grilled oysters with seaweed butter
Butter – especially this sweet-salty seaweed butter – makes everything better.

Raes on Wategos’ oysters with lemon-aspen vinegar, anise-myrtle oil and finger lime
For oysters with personality.

David Chang’s oysters with spicy fennel
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for oysters with spicy fennel.

Roy Choi’s grilled oysters with lemongrass crème fraîche, fried garlic and lime
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for grilled oysters with lemongrass crème fraîche, fried garlic and lime.

Curtis Stone’s oysters with Champagne and caviar
Curtis Stone recipe for oysters with Champagne and caviar from Maude restaurant in Los Angeles.

Beau Clugston’s grilled oysters with tapioca
“This is an idea I got when I was travelling around Australia with René Redzepi; the Aboriginal elders threw the clams or oysters on the fire until they sang,” says Clugston.

Sean Moran’s freshly shucked oysters with tarragon dressing
Match sea-briney oysters with the herby high notes of tarragon and chives.

Freshly shucked oysters and mignonette
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for freshly shucked oysters and mignonette.

Ester’s roast oysters with horseradish
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for roast oysters with horseradish by Mat Lindsay from Ester in Sydney.

Barbecued oysters with finger-lime mignonette
Throw an … oyster on the barbie? Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Lightly steamed XO oysters with bacon crumbs
Chinese recipe for lightly steamed XO oysters with bacon crumbs.

Oysters Rockefeller
Australian Gourmet Traveller appetiser recipe for oysters Rockefeller.

Oysters with wasabi nori and lime dressing
Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for oysters with wasabi nori and lime dressing

Oysters two ways, with cucumber-lime dressing and cabbage-ginger tsukemono
Why settle for just one dressing when you can have two?