Live Seafood

I’m a Culinology student and taking Culinary Essentials I, a seven hour class! This week we focused on fish and shellfish. We had recipes for clams casino, broiled stuffed lobster, and mussels with white wine and shallots. I was nervous to kill, cook, and eat the live seafood. At the beginning of the class, we examined the shellfish to determine how fresh it was. The lobster was alive and kicking! The clams and mussels had their shells closed tight. After examining, we had to kill the lobster before putting it into boiling water. To do this the quickest way possible, Chef placed his knife right behind the lobster’s eyes, where the brain is. After that the lobster was boiled for a few minutes, we halved and stuffed the lobster. The clams casino had stuffing that was kind of similar to the lobster stuffing. The clams were steamed first, so we could open their shells to stuff them. The last recipe was the mussels, which were steamed and then topped with a white wine sauce. All the seafood tasted delicious! It was a great experience to learn how to prepare seafood.


Katie Langel
Freshman- Remsen, IA