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Interesting Seafood Facts

Storing FRESH Seafood
Storing FROZEN Seafood
How to Eat Lobsters

Safe Handling of Seafood

Treat your seafood like ice cream. Keep it cold!! Refrigerate fish as soon as possible and keep temperature between 32 and 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you intend to keep fish for more than two days, freeze immediately.
Don't cross-contaminate! Food poisoning and spoilage bacteria can spread from raw and live seafood to cooked seafood. Handle raw and cooked seafood products separately to avoid cross-contamination.
Thoroughly wash and rinse knives, containers, and cutting boards between handling raw and cooked seafood's.

Storing FRESH Seafood

Unwrap, rinse under cold water, pat dry with paper towel and place in an airtight container. Store in the coldest part of the refrigerator.
For optimum flavor, texture, and nutritional value, store fresh seafood no longer than two days before use.
For optimum quality, it's best to use fresh seafood in its fresh state. If it's necessary to freeze fish, freeze it quickly and use it as soon as possible.
Refrigerate live clams, oysters, mussels, crabs and lobsters in well ventilated containers. Cover container with a damp cloth or paper towel.
Do not store live shellfish in airtight bags or containers. Storing live shellfish in salt water shortens shelf life. Storing live shellfish in fresh water kills them. Top

Storing FROZEN Seafood

Store frozen seafood products in the freezer immediately when you get home from the store. Store frozen seafood in the coldest part of the freezer. Store them in their original moisture and vapor proof package.
Frozen seafood's packaged in over-wrapped trays should be repackaged in cling wrap, plastic freezer wrap, freezer, or other moisture and vapor proof material before storing them in the freezer.
Keep frozen seafood at 0 degrees F or below until ready to use.
Home-style freezers, especially frost-free ones tend to dry fish out, so try to avoid keeping your fish in a freezer for long period of times, such as two weeks or more. Top

How to Eat Lobsters

The white meat of the lobster is located in the tail, claws, and knuckles. Meat can also be found in parts of the body and legs. The red material in the tail section is the coral "roe" or the female eggs and is considered a delicacy. And the greenish material at the junction of the body and tail is "tomalley", which is actually the liver, and has a very unique "peppery" taste used in many recipes. Top

Put on the bib. Twist off the claws.
Crack each claw and knuckle with a nutcracker, pliers or hammer. Remove the meat.
Separate the tail from the body by arching the back until it cracks. Bend back and break off the tail flippers. There’s meat in each flipper, too!
Insert a fork and push the tail meat out in one piece. Remove and discard the black vein that runs the entire length of the tail meat.
Separate the shell of the body from the underside by pulling them apart. Discard the green substance called the tomalley (the liver).
Open the underside of the body by cracking it apart in the middle. Lobster meat lies in the four pockets, or joints, where the small walking legs are attached. The walking legs also contain meat that can be removed by biting down on the leg and squeezing the meat out with your teeth.

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