Oyster sauce salt, should be added to the sauce, since the oysters should provide all the savoury flavour. However, this method is prohibitively expensive. Many modern oyster sauces are thickened with cornstarch, flavoured with oyster essence or extract and darkened with caramel. Vegetarian oyster sauce prepared from mushrooms, often oyster mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, is also popular and generally lower in price. It may contain more taste enhancers if less mushroom extract is used to reduce costs. Most of the oyster sauces available on the market contain added monosodium glutamate (MSG). In recent years MSG-free varieties can also be found. The taste
Oyster ice cream sweet one. Lorraine Eaton of "The Virginian-Pilot" wrote that one of her colleagues at work "had nearly thrown up" after tasting Eaton's homemade oyster ice cream; others had favorable criticism for the ice cream flavour. Mention of oyster ice cream is made in Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". The ice cream flavour was well-liked by the author. One tale, though deemed a myth, has it that oyster ice cream was "George Washington's favorite". Two varieties of oyster ice cream were featured at the Colchester Oyster Festival in Colchester, Essex in September. "Oyster-and-ginger" ice cream was served at