12.3 Shellfish

Shrimp recipes → Crab recipes → Lobster recipes → Clams recipes → Scallops recipes → Squid recipes →

Mollusks and crustaceans

Mollusks have soft bodies in one piece, with no skeleton inside. Most wear a hard shell. Those with one shell, such as abalone, are univalves. Those with two shells joined by a hinge, such as clams, oysters and mussels, are bivalves. Squid and octopus are cephalopods: they have no outer shell, only a thin one inside called a pen or cuttlebone.

Crustaceans have a hard outer shell and legs with joints, and they breathe through gills. Lobsters, crabs and shrimp are crustaceans. They live in both salt and fresh water.

Like fish, most shellfish are tender before cooking and very lean.

Univalves

Univalves are sea snails. Each has one shell and one muscular foot that holds it to rocks.

• Abalone has a brownish-gray shell shaped like an ear. It is harvested in California, where the law forbids canning it or shipping it out of the state; frozen abalone comes from Mexico and canned from Japan. The meat is lean, sweet and delicate, like clam, but too tough to eat until pounded with a mallet or rolling pin. Then it can be eaten raw or ceviche-style. Grill or sauté it with great care: overcooked, it turns very tough.
• Conch comes from warm water around the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. The meat is lean, smooth and very firm, sweet and smoky, and chewy. Slice and pound it, eat it raw with lime juice, or cook it slowly whole.
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• Snails, or escargots in French, live on land but are much like their sea cousins. Poach them in court bouillon, boil them out of the shell, or bake them briefly with a seasoned butter or sauce. Overcooked, they turn tough and chewy. The favorites are the big white Burgundy snail and the little petit gris. Most are sold canned, from France or Taiwan.
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Clams

Clams come from both American coasts, and the Atlantic clams matter more in trade. They are sold all year, live in the shell, freshly shucked, or canned (minced, chopped or whole).

Quahogs, the hard-shell clams, have blue-gray shells and chewy meat, less sweet than other clams. They go by size:

• Littlenecks, usually under 2 inches (5 centimeters) across, are the dearest clams. Serve them on the half shell or steamed.
• Cherrystones, usually under 3 inches (7.5 centimeters), are sometimes eaten raw but more often cooked.
• Top necks are usually cooked, often stuffed.
• Chowders, the largest, are always cooked, often minced for chowder or soup.

Soft-shell clams (Ipswich, steamer or long-necked clams) have thin shells that break easily and never quite close around the black-tipped siphon. Their meat is sweet and tender, most often steamed, sometimes fried. Surf clams live in deep water and grow to 8 inches (20 centimeters); they are cut into strips for frying or minced and canned.

Most Pacific clams are too tough to eat raw. The Manila clam, brought to the Pacific coast in the 1930s, looks like a ridged quahog and can be steamed or served on the half shell. The geoduck is the biggest Pacific clam, up to 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms), with a large siphon; its rich body and briny taste are popular in Asian cooking.

Cockles, mussels and oysters

Cockles are small ridged bivalves about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. They are better known in Europe and go into paella and fish soups and stews.

Mussels are found all over the world. Steam them in wine or a seasoned broth, fry them, or add them to soups and pasta.

• Blue mussels are the most common. Wild ones come from the Atlantic coast, and they are farmed on both coasts. The meat is plump, sweet and firm. Farmed mussels have much more orange-yellow meat than wild ones, which makes them worth the higher price. They are sold live, 10 to 20 to the pound, and are best from winter harvests.
• Green-lip mussels come from Thailand and New Zealand. They are much bigger, 8 to 12 to the pound, with paler shells edged in bright green.

Oysters have rough gray shells and soft, gray, briny meat that can be eaten raw from the shell. Cooks also steam or bake them in the shell, or shuck them to fry, sauté, or add to stews and chowders. Most American oysters are farmed and sold live or shucked. Of the four domestic species (Atlantic, European flat, Olympia and Pacific), only the Atlantic and Pacific oysters matter in trade. Each is sold under dozens of place names, such as blue points or Kumamoto. An oyster takes its flavor from the minerals and salt of the water and mud where it grew, so two oysters of the same species from different places can taste very different.

Scallops

A scallop's edible part is the white muscle that holds its two fan-shaped shells shut. Scallops die quickly, so they are usually shucked and cleaned on the boat. The main kinds are the sea scallop, the largest at 20 to 30 to the pound; the bay scallop, 70 to 90 to the pound; and the calico scallop, 70 to 110. Most are sold shucked and cleaned, fresh or frozen.

Good raw scallops are ivory and slightly see-through, not perfectly round, and springy to the touch. They are sweet and tender. Steam, broil, grill, fry, sauté or bake them, but watch them: overcooked, they go chewy and dry fast. Serve them raw only when they are extremely fresh.

Squid and octopus

Cephalopods have a distinct head, well-made eyes, arms that grow from the head around the mouth, and a body sac with fins called the mantle.

Octopus is usually tough. It needs pounding or long, moist cooking before it is good to eat. Most is imported from Portugal. Its skin is gray raw and purple cooked; the flesh inside is white, lean, firm and full of flavor.

Squid, or calamari in Italian, is smaller than octopus. The East Coast loligo or winter squid is thought the best. Most squid run about 8 to 10 to the pound, but the giant South American squid is sold as tenderized steaks. You can eat the tentacles, the mantle (the body tube) and the fins. The meat is white to ivory, darkening with age, fairly lean, a little sweet, firm and tender. It toughens fast if overcooked. It is sold fresh, or frozen in blocks.

Crayfish and crab

Crayfish, called crawfish or crawdads in the American South, are freshwater animals that look like small lobsters, 3½ to 7 inches (8 to 17.5 cm) long. They are sold live or cooked and frozen. The sweet, lean meat is mostly in the tail. Boil them whole, or use the tail meat fried or in soups, bisques and sauces. They are central to Cajun gumbo, étouffée and jambalaya, and they turn bright red when cooked.

Crab is sold fresh, frozen and canned. Live crab should keep up to five days; never use a crab that has died.

• King crab is very large, usually around 10 pounds (4.4 kilograms), from the cold northern Pacific. Its meat is very sweet and snow white. It is always sold frozen, mostly in the shell as legs, claws or split legs.
• Dungeness crab comes from the West Coast and weighs 1½ to 4 lb (680 g to 1.8 kg). The meat is sweet and delicate. It is sold live, cooked and frozen, or as picked meat.
• Blue crab lives along the whole Atlantic coast and makes up about half the weight of all crab caught in the United States. The meat is rich and sweet. Hard-shell blue crabs are sold live, cooked and frozen, or picked. Soft-shell crabs are caught within six hours of shedding their shells, and are sold frozen, or live between May 15 and September 15. Steam them whole, sauté, fry or broil them, or add them to soups and stews.
• Snow crab, or spider crab, is plentiful and often stands in for the dearer king crab. It is sold cooked and usually frozen. The legs are often served cold as a starter.
• Stone crab is sold only as cooked claws, fresh or frozen, because raw claw meat sticks to the shell when frozen. Only the claw is taken; the crab goes back into the water and grows a new one in about 18 months. Claws weigh 2½ to 5½ ounces (75 to 155 grams), with firm, sweet meat. Serve them cracked, hot or cold.
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Lobster

Lobsters have brown to blue-black shells that turn red when cooked, and firm, white, rich, sweet meat. Cooks most often poach, steam, simmer, bake or grill them. Keep lobsters alive until just before you cook them. Never eat a lobster that died before cooking.

• Maine lobster, also called American or clawed lobster, has meat in both tail and claws and is thought the best-tasting lobster. It is usually sold live, by weight: for example 1¼, 1½ or 2 pounds each. A chix weighs under 1 pound (450 grams), a cull has only one claw, and a bullet has none.
• Spiny lobster has tiny claws and is valued only for its tail. In the United States it is sold almost entirely as frozen tails, often called rock lobster. Warm-water tails come from Florida, Brazil and the Caribbean; cold-water tails, thought better, come from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
• Slipper lobster, lobsterette and squat lobster have no claws and taste less good than Maine or spiny lobster. Langoustines are small North Atlantic lobsters.

Shrimp

Kitchens use dozens of kinds of shrimp, among them Gulf whites, pinks, browns and black tigers. Most shrimp have their heads removed and are frozen at sea. The commonest form is raw, headless, shell on, also called green headless. Shrimp also come peeled and deveined, raw or cooked, individually quick-frozen, breaded or canned.

Shrimp are graded by how many make a pound, from 400 down to 8 (extra-colossal). A box marked 21–26 count holds about 21 to 26 shrimp per pound. U-10 means under 10 per pound.

The word prawn is often used for any large shrimp. Scampi is Italian for the Dublin Bay prawn, which is really a small lobster; in the United States, though, scampi means shrimp sautéed in garlic butter.

Getting shellfish ready

Clams. Under cold running water, scrub every mollusk with a brush to get rid of mud and sand. A clam opens more easily if it rests in the refrigerator for at least an hour after washing. To open it:

• Hold the clam in a folded towel in your palm with the hinge notch toward your thumb.
• Use the fingers of that same hand to pull the clam knife in between the shells. Never push the handle with your other hand, or a slip will cut you.
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• Cut the muscle and twist the shells apart.
• Cut the muscle from the top shell, and break that shell off at the hinge.
• Free the clam from the bottom shell.
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Oysters. Open them in four steps:

• Brush the oyster clean under running water and hold it in a folded towel.
• Push the tip of an oyster knife into the hinge and twist to pop it, without driving the knife forward, since it can slip and stab you.
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• Slide the knife along the top shell to free the oyster, and throw that shell away.
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• Release the oyster from the bottom shell.
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Mussels. Mussels are not normally eaten raw. Scrub them under cold water and pull off the beard, the clump of dark threads, with your fingers or small pliers. Removing the beard can kill the mussel, so do it as close to cooking as you can.

Lobster for boiling or broiling. A whole lobster can go straight into boiling water or court bouillon. To broil it, split it first:

• Lay the lobster on its back and drive the tip of a chef's knife into the head.
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• In one stroke, cut down through the body and tail without cutting all the way through.
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• Crack the back so it lies flat, and break the claws with the back of the knife.
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• Remove the stomach. Save the tomalley (the olive-green liver) and any coral (the roe) for a sauce.
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Lobster for sautéing. Cut it up in this order:

• Pierce the head.
• Cut off the claws and arms.
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• Cut the tail into rounds.
• Split the head and body. The head and legs add flavor but hold little meat, so they are usually thrown away.
• Crack the claws.

Raw shellfish and safe sources

Buy shellfish only from approved suppliers. Shellfish from unapproved sellers may come from closed areas and carry heavy loads of germs or poisons. For the rules on suppliers, see chapter 2: Raw foods and suppliers.