SHELLFISH

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SHELLFISH

• MOLLUSKS AND CRUSTEACEANS

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Shellfish

• are distinguished from fin fish by their hard
  outer bodies and their lack of backbones or
  internal skeletons
• Two classifications
• 1. Mollusks soft sea animals that fall into 3
  categories
• Three types
• Bivalves have a pair of hinged shells (clams
  and oysters
• Univalves single shell (abalone and conch)
• Cephalopods
• 2. Crustaceans have segmented shells and jointed
  legs

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MOLLUSKS
Most important in commercial kitchens Oysters
Clams Mussels Scallops Squid Octopus
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Oysters

• Characteristics
• Have rough, irregular shells. Bottom shell
  slightly bowl shaped. Top is flat
• Flesh is extremely soft and delicate and contains
  high percentage of water
• Are available year round but are best in fall and
  spring! Locally harvested only in months
  containing an R
• Four main varieties depending on point of
  origin. Dozens of sub varieties depending of
  location flavor also related to area

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Four main varieties

• EASTERN
• OLYPMIA
• BELON
• JAPANESE OR PACIFIC

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EASTERN

• KNOWN BY MANY LOCAL NAMES
• Bluepoint, Box oyster (LI),
• Chesapeake bay, Chincoteague (VA),
• Cotuit (Nantucket),
• Kent Island, Patuxent (MD),
• Malpeque (Prince Edward Island, Canada),
• Apalachicola (FL),
• Breton Sound (LA),
• Wellfleet (MA)

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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSpg6XZSJE0s
Click and open link to see how to shuck oysters
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OLYPMIA

• Very small, from pacific coast

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BELON

• European oyster now grown in NA
• Shells are flatter than most eastern types
• Properly European Flat Oysters
• Belon reserved for those grown at mouth of Loire
  river in France
• Prized for briny taste

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JAPANESE OR PACIFIC

• Usually large oysters
• The much smaller Kumamoto is same species

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Oyster market forms

• Live, in the shell
• Shucked or fresh frozen, are graded by size
• Cannedrarely used in food service except as
  smoked canned

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Checking freshness

• Oysters in the shell must be alive to be good to
  eat. Tightly closed shells or shells that closed
  when jostled, indicate live oysters. Discard open
  ones as they are dead and should not be
  consumed!!
• Live or shucked oysters should have a very mild,
  sweet smell. Strong odors indicate spoilage

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Storage

• Keep live oysters in a cold wet place in the
  cartons or sacks in which they arrived. They
  should keep at least 1 week.
• Bag tags must be saved for 90 days from time of
  arrival in case someone gets ill.
• Fresh shucked in original container in
  refrigerator at 30 to 34F.
• Keep frozen in freezer at 0F or colder until
  ready to use. Thaw in frig for 24 hours.

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Oyster cooking

• Cook just enough to heat through to keep oysters
  juicy and plump. Overcooking makes them shrunken
  and dry
• Cooking methods poaching, deep frying, baking on
  half shell with toppings, in soups and stews

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Clams

• Two major types of clams from east coast of NA
  hard and soft shell clams
• Hard Shell clams or quahogs go by different names
  depending on size
• Littlenecks are smallest usually type eaten raw
  or steamed
• Cherrystones medium sized, most common
• Chowders largest also called quahogs tough can
  be chopped for chowder or into strips for frying
• West Coast also has local varieties

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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwsddhF_a3lMfeature
related
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Soft shell clams

• Commonly called longnecks because of long tube
  that protrudes from between shells
• Also called steamers because of how they are
  cooked and served with melted butter for dipping
• COCKLES
• Not actually clams but they look like tiny ones
• Cooked like clams almost always served in shells

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Market forms

• Hard clams live, in the shell shucked, fresh or
  frozen canned whole and chopped
• Freshness same as oysters must be alive,
  shucked should smell fresh
• Storage
• Same as oysters
• Cooking
• Become tough and rubbery if overcooked
• Steam until just opened
• Methods steaming, poaching, deep frying, baking
  on half shell with toppings, simmering in soups
  and chowders

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Mussels

• Common small black or dark blue/purple in color
• Shells not as hard as clams so need care in
  handling or will break
• Flesh is yellow to orange in color, firm but
  tender when cooked
• Green mussels from NZ are larger and command
  premium price. Always sold on half shell frozen
  in USA

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Market forms

• Sold alive in shell same rules apply as with
  clams and oysters must be alive
• Shucked are sold packed in their own liquor or
  brine.
• Discard any mussels that float. Watch for closed
  ones full of sand

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Cleaning mussels

• Clean shells thoroughly scrub well under cold
  running water
• Scrape off barnacles with clam knife
• Remove beard, a fibrous appendage protruding from
  between shells. Do not do this until you
  close to using them because it may kill them
• May be sandy if not commercially grown. May be
  soaked in brine and corn meal like clams to rid
  them of sand

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Storage and cooking

• Store like clams and oysters but protect from
  light and be sure to keep sack damp
• Cooking
• Mussels are almost never served raw. Usually
  steamed / served in their shells with cooking
  broth, in soups, or chilled / served with mayo
  type dressing
• Cook only until shells open and mussels are
  heated through. Do not over cook
• Discard any that do not open

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PICKING MUSSELS FROM THE SHELL
MUSSELS BEDS
STEAMED MUSSELS ON HALF SHELL
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGNUr-HOXwPgfeature
related
Open link change to 480 instead of 360 better
viewing and full screen is almost 10 minutes long
but very good
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SCALLOPS

• Characteristics
• Almost always sold shucked
• Only part we eat is side inductor mussels that
  hold shells closed
• If shucking your own leave side orange mussel (
  coral roe) attached
• Two main types
• Bay scallops small delicate, expensive (32-40/)
• Sea scallops larger not as delicate but still
  tender unless overcooked (1020 /
• Creamy white color sweet flavor
• Available year round but local in late summer
  early fall

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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vqYPZvkppFikfeature
player_embedded
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UNIVALVES

• Abalone are small to very large-sized edible sea
  snails
• Flesh (the adductor muscle) of abalones is widely
  considered to be a desirable food
• Various larger species of abalones have been
  exploited commercially for food to extent that
  many populations are now severely threatened.
• Highly iridescent inner nacre layer of shell of
  abalone has traditionally been used as a
  decorative item in jewelry, buttons, and as inlay
  in furniture and in musical instruments such as
  guitars, etc.

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Conch

• Second in popularity only to escargot for edible
  snails, "meat" of conch is used as food, either
  eaten raw, as in salads, or cooked, as in
  fritters, chowders, gumbos, and burgers.
• All parts of conch meat are edible. Some people
  find only white meat appetizing.
• In East Asian cuisines, is often cut into thin
  slices and then steamed or stir-fried.
• Bahamas and West Indies in general, local people
  eat conch in soups (commonly Callao) and salads.

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CEPHALOPODS

• Means head-foot referring to the fact that
  animals have tentacles or legs attached to the
  head, surrounding the mouth
• Most important in US are squid and octopus
• Cuttlefish similar to squid found more in Asian
  styles places

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Squid

• On menus as calamari
• Have ten tentacles two longer than others
• Must be skinned and eviscerated
• Head and beak and internal plastic quill are
  discarded
• Hollow body and tentacles are eaten
• Somewhat chewy, it is cut up and either fried
  quickly or simmered for about 45 minutes in
  seasoned liquid or sauce

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Octopus

• Means eight feet range in size from less than on
  oz to up many s up to 100s
• All are firm textured, even chewy but larger
  sizes are usually considered too tough
• Requires mechanical tenderizing ( pounding) or
  long slow cooking in court bouillon
• Cleaned by cutting off tentacles and discarding
  head and beak and eviscerating body cavity
• Pull off skin may be necessary to par boil to
  loosen it
• Skin reddish gray turning purple red when cooked

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Crustaceans

• Most important of these are
• Lobsters
• Rock lobsters
• Langoustes
• Shrimp
• Crabs

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Lobsters

• American lobster, Homarus americanus, lobster
  found on Atlantic coast of North America. Also
  known as the northern lobster, Atlantic lobster
  or Maine lobster.
• Thrives in cold, shallow waters where there are
  many rocks and other places to hide from
  predators and is both solitary and nocturnal. It
  feeds on fish, small crustaceans, and mollusks.
• Found as far south as North Carolina, but is
  famously associated with the colder waters around
  the Canadian Maritimes, Newfoundland and
  Labrador, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
  New Hampshire and also LONG ISLAND

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CHARACTERISTICS

• MOST PRIZED OF ALL SHELLFISH
• LARGE FLEXIBLE TAIL WITH FOUR PAIRS OF LEGS AND
  TWO LAARGE CLAWS
• It is dark green or bluish green until cooked
  when it turns red
• Meat from tail, claws and legs is eaten
• White sweet meat with distinctive taste
• Claw meat considered especially good
• Coral (roe or eggs) which is dark green turns
  bright red when cooked
• Green tomalley (liver) found in thorax is also
  eaten

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Classified by weight

• Chick 1
• Quarters 1 ¼
• Selects 1 ½ to 2 ½
• Jumbos over 2 ½
• Over 20 are caught but rare
• 1 lobster yields approx 1/4 meat
• Some customers prefer females so they get coral
  legs closest to tail are flexible in female and
  hard in male
• Must be alive to use indicated by leg movement
• Sleepers (dying lobsters) should be cooked off
  ASAP

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Handling

• Live are either cooked alive or cut up before
  cooking (broiling or sautéing)
• Live should be plunged head first into boiling
  water to kill them then simmered 5/6 mins /
  served hot drained well and tail split and claws
  cracked for easier use by customer
• If splitting or cutting up insert knife through
  back above eyes and cut down towards tentacles to
  kill by brain death
• Are considered done when flesh has become white
  and coral has turned red

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Storage

• Pack in seaweed or covered with moist heavy paper
  like old newspapers in a cool place
• Salt water holding tank used for display
• Remember lobster when being held live on their
  own stored muscle mass and it breaks down after
  week-10 days once their claws are banded
• Become very tough if over cooked!!!

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In the water
Pair of ten pounders
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6Ndw8upyJKofeature
related
Rare blue lobster always found in extremely cold
waters
Cooked lobster
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Rock / Langoustes or spiny lobster

• Found in warmer waters
• If you by lobster tails you are buying tails from
  these lobsters since they have no claws
• Meat similar to Maine lobsters but is drier and
  coarser with less flavor
• Tails weigh between 2 to 12 oz
• Langoustines or langostinos are smaller relatives
  and also marketed as rock shrimp (just tail meat)
• Scampi in Europe is really a variety of
  langostinos from Italy but has come to mean other
  things as well

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Spiny are cooked by same methods as regular
lobsters but tails may be broiled, baked, steamed
or sautéed
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v-UqKRGW6_rw
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Crayfish/ Crawfish or crawdads

• Are freshwater crustaceans resembling small
  lobsters, to which they are related.
• They breathe through feather-like gills (as do
  lobsters) and are found in bodies of water that
  do not freeze to the bottom they are also mostly
  found in brooks and streams where there is fresh
  water running, and which have shelter against
  predators.
• Most crayfish cannot tolerate polluted water,
  although some are more hardy.
• Crayfish feed on living and dead animals and
  plants and are a favorite food of trout

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Crayfish are eaten all over the world

• Only small portion of a crayfish is edible. In
  most prepared dishes, soups, bisques and
  étouffées, only tail portion is served.
• Claws of larger boiled specimens are often pulled
  apart to access meat inside.
• Favorite is to suck head seasoning and flavor can
  collect in fat of boiled interior. Popular double
  entendre laden from this practice "Suck the
  head, pinch the tail"

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Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads
Louisiana supplies 98 of the crayfish harvested
in the United States
Open link to learn how to eat crawfish
http//www.youtube.com/watch?voqWipLPv9lwfeature
fvw
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Shrimp

• Live in schools swim rapidly backwards.
• Shrimp are an important food source for larger
  animals from fish to whales.
• They have a high tolerance to toxins in polluted
  areas, and may contribute to high toxin levels in
  their predators.
• With prawns, shrimp are widely caught and farmed
  for human consumption.

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Shrimp typically have two pairs of claws, and the
second segment of the abdomen overlaps the
segments on either side. The abdomen shows a
pronounced bend.
Prawns typically have three pairs of claws, and
even-sized segments on the abdomen. There is no
pronounced bend in the abdomen
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Shrimp Cocktail
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGjxVoKODnGg
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Blue Claw Crabs

• Undergo a seasonal migration
• After mating female crab travels to southern
  portion of the Chesapeake, fertilizing her eggs
  with sperm stored up from the last mating months
  or almost a year later.
• In November or December, female crab releases her
  eggs.
• Crabs hatch in a larval form and float in the
  mouth of the bay for four to five weeks, then the
  juvenile crabs make their way back up into the
  bay.

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• Blue crab meat is available year-round in the
  pasteurized form, live crabs are seasonal and
  much more plentiful during the warm water months
  of the year.
• Fresh or pasteurized cooked crab meat is usually
  available for purchase as lump, flake, or claw
  meat lump meat consists of  whole lumps from the
  large body muscles which operate the swimming
  legs flake meat consists of small pieces of
  white meat from the body claw meat consists of a
  brownish tinged meat from the claws.

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Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland / Virginia

• Famous for its blue crabs, one of the most
  important economic items harvested from it
• Yearly combined harvest of blue crabs was valued
  at around 100 million US dollars. Over years
  harvests of blue crab dropped combined harvest
  was around 45 million dollars.
• Blue crabs remain a popular food in Chesapeake
  Bay area, Bay is not capable of meeting local
  demands. Most whole blue crabs sold in
  restaurants in Maryland are shipped into the
  region from North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida,
  Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and many crabcakes
  are made of crabmeat imported from overseas
  especially Mexico and Venezuela.
• Phillips Seafood, began as a crab shack in Ocean
  City, Maryland, actually imports a Southeast
  Asian crab, an industry there that employs about
  15,000 people.

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• In the past US crab meat was picked and processed
  by a labor force comprised almost exclusively of
  African-American females. They received
  transportation to and from work usually on old
  school buses and were paid by the picked pound
  with company coins or chits which could be
  converted to cash at the week's end.
• That labor force in the US has today been
  replaced by a Latin American female work force.
  Some seafood shops being socially sensitive offer
  crab meat processed both in the US and in Latin
  America the differences in the quality of the two
  products being little to none the Latin American
  product being about 2.00 a pound less expensive.

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Grading (Sizing)

• There is no industry standard for grading hard
  crabs. For instance, a crab that is graded
  "large" in the lower Chesapeake Bay region would
  be graded "medium" in the upper regions. Use the
  following as a general rule
• Colossal - Hard crab measuring 6 ½ inches or
  more.Jumbo - Hard crab measuring 6 to 6 ½ inches
  in size.Large - Hard crab measuring 5 ½ to 6
  inches in size.Medium - Hard crab measuring 5 to
  5 ½ inches in size.Small - Hard crab measuring 4
  ½ to 5 inches in size, usually females.
• Note In most states there is no minimum size for
  keeping mature female crabs (sooks). This is
  because it is generally accepted that female
  crabs cease to molt following maturity, thus they
  remain the same size throughout the remainder of
  their lives. It is illegal to keep immature
  female crabs.

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Other types of crabs

• Alaskan king crab largest crabs weighing from 6
  to 20. Meat can be removed in large chunks ,
  making especially attractive to serve in
  restaurants! It is expensive!!
• Alaskan Snow crab smaller than king. Often used
  as less expensive alternate. Legs come in
  clusters
• Dungeness crab another west coast crab sold as
  whole cooked crabs. Meat very sweet
• Soft shell crabs actually molting blue crab,
  harvested before hard shell re-grows. It is
  usually sautéed or breaded and fried after gills
  and face are removed. Eaten entirely

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Alaskan King Crab Legs

• Alaskan King crab legs are succulent, mildly
  sweet and tender, with snow-white meat with
  highlights of bright red. Taken from the very
  finest king crab harvested from the icy waters of
  the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean, king crab
  legs come fully cooked and are easily and quickly
  prepared by steaming, boiling or baking.
• King crab legs are cooked at sea where they are
  caught and flash frozen aboard the fishing
  vessels to protect their flavors. Frozen cooked
  crab legs may be steamed or microwaved. Place
  them frozen over boiling water and steam them
  covered tightly for 6 minutes. Or place the
  frozen crab legs in the microwave covered with a
  damp towel and heat on defrost for 5 minutes.
  Brush with melted butter, season to taste and
  serve with cocktail sauce.

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What they try to harvest on deadliest catch
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Dungeness crab

• Crabs are sexually mature and active breeders
  after their second year and grow to the legal
  harvest size (6 ¼" across the shell back) in
  roughly four years.
• By not harvesting sexually mature but undersized
  male crabs so that they can breed with female
  crabs (which are never harvested), the
  reproductive capacity of the population is
  protected.
• Dungeness crab can live in excess of 8 years and
  reach a size of 9-plus inches.

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Alaskan Snow Crab Legs

• Snow crab is somewhat similar in appearance, but
  smaller than the king crab.
• As snow crab is sold and pre-cooked, it needs to
  only be thawed for chilled applications, or
  thawed and heated for hot applications.
• Split legs are best prepared broiled, grilled or
  served cold as an appetizer. Whole legs and
  clusters are best steamed or sautéed as an
  entrée.
• Snow crab meat is very good in omelets, crepes,
  quiches, soups, salads, pastas and casseroles. A
  convenient appetizer is the cocktail claw, cap
  removed and ready to eat.
• Any part of the snow crab can be used to make a
  dish more visually appealing.

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Soft-shell crabs are one of America's favorite
seafood delicacies

• The blue crab is the only commercially available
  soft-shell product. The scientific name,
  Callinectes sapidus, is derived from Latin and
  Greek. Calli beautiful Nectes swimmer
  sapidus savory. The translation is not only
  accurate but surprisingly poeticthe beautiful,
  savory swimmer.
• Blue crabs grow rather rapidly, 12 - 18 months,
  from the juvenile stage to adulthood. A
  full-grown blue crab will measure nearly 8 inches
  across.
• During its lifetime the blue crab will go through
  several growth stages.
• In order for a blue crab to lose its shell, the
  body of the crab physically grows 30. T
• he commercial crabbers will harvest the blue crab
  and place it in floating tanks according to its
  expectant shed dates.

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• The crab expert looks for a faint line next to
  the crab's paddle-like finlet (backfin).
• The color of this line will determine when the
  crab is about to shed its shell.
• What crabbers refer to as a "green" crab is a
  crab that is just entering the shedding stage.
• The "green" crab will have a white line on the
  backfin and will most likely shed its shell in
  approximately 7 - 10 days.
• If the line is pink, the crab is likely to shed
  within 2 days and probably not longer than one
  week.
• If the little line on the backfin is red the crab
  is likely to shed its shell at any time.

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Soft-shells 5 basic sizes

• SIZE DIMENSIONS AVERAGE WEIGHT DOZENS PER TRAY
  DOZENS PER CASE as follows
• Whales 5 ½ inches 5.9 oz 2
• Jumbos 5 - 5 ½ inches 4.5 oz 3
• Primes 4 ½ - 5 inches 3.3 oz 4
• Hotels 4 - 4 ½ inches 2.5 oz 5
• Mediums 3 ½ - 4 inches 1.8 oz 6

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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vUocMvHT560sfeature
channel
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Miscellaneous seafood

• Escargot is a dish of cooked land snails, usually
  served as an appetizer. The word is also
  sometimes applied to the living snails of those
  species which are commonly eaten.

Lt meat out of shell Rt Meat cooked in the
shell
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Frogs legs
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2YZJt_Bw3eofeature
related

• Frogs' legs are one of the better-known
  delicacies of French and Cantonese cuisine
• Also eaten in other regions, such as Caribbean,
  Alentejo, in Portugal, northwest Greece, Piemonte
  in Italy, Spain and the Midwest and southern
  regions US.
• A type of frog called the edible frog is most
  often used for this dish.

A bag of frogs legs from Vietnam
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vJE8ljarENVsfeature
related
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Frogs legs

• They are often said to taste like chicken because
  of their mild flavor, with a texture most similar
  to chicken wings
• Frogs are raised commercially in certain
  countries, e.g. Vietnam. Frog muscle does not
  resolve rigor mortis as quickly as warm-blooded
  muscle (chicken, for example), so heat from
  cooking can cause fresh frog legs to twitch

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Surimi

• Surimi Japanese ??? (literally "fish puree or
  slurry") is a Japanese loan word referring to a
  fish-based food product intended to mimic texture
  and color of meat of lobster, crab and other
  shellfish.
• Typically made from white-fleshed fish (pollock
  or hake) that has been pulverized to a paste and
  attains a rubbery texture when cooked.

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A tub of uncured fish surimi ready for
finish-processing
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Surimi

• In many Asian cultures and is available in many
  shapes, forms, and textures
• Most common surimi product in Western market is
  imitation or artificial crab legs.
• Often is sold as sea legs and krab in America,
  and as seafood sticks, crab sticks, fish sticks
  or seafood extender

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Surimi in various forms really they look
artificial