Cooking with Seafood

Featured Pro: Tyler Florence
Category: Cooking
Time: 1:05


TYLER FLORENCE: Hi. I’m Tyler Florence here with a GMC Trade Secret.

You know, when it comes to buying fresh shellfish – clams, mussels or shrimp – there’s a couple of things you want to think about. I’m a big fan. I’ve got a few of my favorites here, and we’re going to talk about them.

Now, I’ve got a big bowl of mussels here. Now, first thing, your nose knows best. They should always smell fresh. They should smell like cucumbers or like the ocean. Now, when you’re washing them up, you want to sort of kind of pick through them to make sure there’s no broken shells. And if any of them are open, just give them a little tap. And if they start to close up like this guy here, perfect. That means they’re still alive and they’re ready to go. If they don’t close up, that means they’re dead and you definitely want to get rid of them. So these guys are all cleaned up.

Now, when it comes to cleaning clams – now, clams and mussels are both a bivalve, which means they’ve got two muscles that work on a hinge. And sometimes sand can get caught right in the hinge and you want to use a brush under some cold water and just give them a nice scrub up, and these guys are ready to go. A little bit of sand can do a lot of harm to really good clam chowder.

Now, I’ve got some really beautiful shrimp here that still have the peels on, all right, and they’re ready to go. And I keep them on some ice, and that way when you’re ready to cook them up, they’re ready to go for you.

I’m Tyler Florence, and that’s my shellfish tip.