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 the blade slips. Heavy gloves, sometimes sold as oyster gloves, are recommended; apart from the knife, the shell itself can be razor-sharp. Professional shuckers require fewer than three seconds to open the shell. If the oyster has a particularly soft shell, the knife can be inserted instead in the "sidedoor", about halfway along one side where the oyster lips widen with a slight indentation. Opening or "shucking" oysters has become a competitive sport. Oyster-shucking competitions are staged around the world. The Guinness World Oyster Opening Championship is held in September at the Galway Oyster Festival. The annual Clarenbridge Oyster Festival