Seafood: Tools, Equipment, and Preparation

• The lesson focuses on tools, equipment, preparation, cooking, and storage of seafood, including classification, characteristics, and market forms of fish and shellfish.

Tools and Equipment

• Tools are items used to achieve a goal, while equipment is a set of tools for a specific objective.
• Kitchen tools for preparing fish include blade tweezers, fin shears, fish scales, lobster picks, shellfish knives, and bone tweezers.
• A cutting board is for placing the material for cutting
• Kitchen Knives are any knife used for food preparation
• Fish bone tweezers remove small bones from raw fish fillets.
• Kitchen shears, or kitchen scissors, cut and trim food like meat and fish.
• Shellfish knives are classic pocket knives for opening oysters and shellfish.
• Grilling, frying pans, fish steamer, oven, fish spatula, and tongs are used in cooking.
• Rubberized gloves protect the hand during fish preparation
• Brushes are for sanitary cleaning of kitchen tasks or cleaning fruits, mushrooms or shellfish
• Spatulas are hand-held tools for lifting, flipping, or spreading
• Frying pans are flat-bottomed pans for frying, searing, and browning foods.
• Grills cook food, usually by roasting, using charcoal, wood, or propane.
• Tongs pick up pieces of coal and placing them on a fire
• Plating plates serve to allow your food to stand out

Other Equipment

• Ovens are thermally insulated chambers for heating, baking, or drying.
• Refrigerators keep food cold and unspoiled longer.
• Plastic packaging stores frozen fish and meat.
• Sheet pans are flat, rectangular metal or ceramic pans used in ovens.
• Fish scales remove scales from fish.

Fish Composition and Nutritive Value

• Fish and shellfish are high in protein and essential nutrients, important for heart health and children's growth.
• Fish consist of water, protein, fats, and small amounts of minerals and vitamins, with minimal connective tissue.
• There are two types of fish, fat and lean.
• Fat fish are the tastiest and healthiest food from the sea. Oily fish and full of omega-3 fatty acids such as (salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel)
• Lean Fish – are those that are low in fat. (sole, cod, red snapper, bass)

Key Considerations for Cooking Fish

• Fish cooks quickly, even at low heat.
• Fish is naturally tender. High heat toughens protein.
• Undercooked seafood can lead to poisoning
• Moist-heat methods preserve moistness and provide variety.
• Cooked fish should be handled carefully.
• Overcooking seafood causes flavor loss and nutrient reduction

Classifications of Seafood

• Fish products are divided into two categories
• Fin fish - fish with fins and internal skeletons
  • Saltwater fish such as Flatfish; Flounder and Sole or Round fish: Black sea bars, Bluefish, Cod, Grouper
  • Freshwater fish such as Cat fish -round, Eel -round, Tilapia
• Shell fish – fish with external shells but no internal bone structure
  • Mollusks are soft sea animals
    • Bivalves have a pair of hinged shells (clams, oysters)
    • Univalves have a single shell (abalone)
    • Cephalopods (octopus, squid)
  • Crustaceans-are animals with segmented shells and jointed legs (shrimps, crabs)

Market Forms of Fish

• Whole round: Completely intact, as caught.
• Drawn: Viscera (internal organs) removed.
• Steak: Cross-section slices, each containing a section of backbone.
• Dressed: Viscera, scales, head, tail, and fins are removed.
• Fillets: Boneless side of fish, with or without skin.
• Butterflied fillets: Both sides of a fish still joined, but with bones removed.
• Sticks or tranches: Cross-section slices of fillet.

Shellfish Characteristics

• Oysters have rough, irregular shells and high water content.
• Hard-shell clams can be eaten raw
• Soft-shell clams are called steamers, usually cooked by steaming.
• Mussels are yellow to orange in color and firm but tender when cooked.
• Scallops are creamy white and have a sweet flavor.
• Squid is chewy and quickly fried.
• Lobster shells are dark green or bluish green when live but turn red when cooked.

Market Forms of Shellfish

• Mollusks can be live in the shell, shucked (fresh or frozen), or canned.
• Crustaceans can be live or cooked meat, fresh or frozen.

Handling Fish and Seafood

• Handle seafood safely to avoid foodborne illness.
• Store fresh seafood in the coldest part of the refrigerator at 40°F or lower.
• To maintain freshness, use ice when possible
• Purchase seafood last when shopping and use a cooler for transport.

Freshness of Fish and Shellfish

• Fin fish should have a fresh, mild odor, clear, shiny, bulging eyes, red or pink gills, firm or elastic flesh, and shiny scales that cling tightly to the skin.
• Shellfish: Oysters, clams and mussels must be alive to eat safely
• Oysters & Shucked oysters must also have a very mild, sweet smell
• Discard mussels if they are very light
• All Shrimp should smell fresh and sweet
• Live crabs should be kept alive until cooked and Frozen crabmeat should be treated like any other frozen fish

Storing Fresh Fish

• Store on crushed ice using drip pans, change ice daily, cover the container, and keep separate from other foods.
• Use a refrigerated box at 30° to 34°F.
• Fresh fish can be stored for 1-2 days, wrap and freeze immediately if kept longer.

Storing Frozen Fish

• Frozen products should be frozen when received, well wrapped, and have no freezer burn
• Store at 0°F or colder.
• Storage times: Fat fish for 2 months, lean fish for 6 months.
• Rotate stock for first in, first out

Handling and Thawing Frozen Fish

• Thaw in the refrigerator
• Small pieces can be cooked from frozen, but large fish should be thawed for even cooking.
• Handle thawed fish like fresh fish and not refreeze.
• Breaded, battered, and prepared items are mostly cooked from the frozen state.

Shellfish Storage

• Keep refrigerated at 32°F to 35°F and protected from light
• Store in original sack.
• Shucked scallops covered and refrigerated (30°F to 34°F)
• Lobster stored live, either packed in moist seaweed in a cool place or in saltwater for use withing 1-2 days
• Kept frozen at 0°F -Thaw shrimp in refrigerator
• Peeled shrimp should be wrapped before placing on ice before cooking

Cooking Fish and Shellfish

• Lean fish: Best served with sauces because it has little fat so easily becomes dry.
• Fat fish can be cooked by poaching
• Cook oyster just enough to heat thoroughly to keep it juicy and plump

Scaling Whole Fish

• Lay fish flat on a board or hold it steady in water.
• Hold the fish firmly and rake scales from tail to head and remove scales, then rinse the fish.

Filleting, skinning, and deboning a fish

• Filleting: Cut behind the head, angling the knife toward the front, then cut down to the bone and follow the line to just behind the fins.
• Skinning: Keep the skinning knife clean and wet to lubricate the blade and allow for a much cleaner cut
• Deboning involves removing the fine bones with gentle strokes of a knife angled towards the gut cavity.

Opening Oysters

• Hold the oyster cup side down and hinge pointed towards you
• Insert the oyster knife at the hinge
• turn the meat for most professional appearance

Opening Clams

• Scrub clams under cool running water using a stiff kitchen brush.
• Slide the knife between the clam and shell

Cleaning Squid

• Pull off the head
• Remove the ink sac, beak from tentacle, pull out the tail tube and cartilage before pulling off the skin

Cutting Lobster Lenghtwise

• Place the lobster on its back on a tea towel to prevent slipping
• Using a heavy sharp knife, cut right through the underside of the body and tail, down the center
• Split the lobster and continue the cut through center of the head