Sea food sources?

[livingthelife]

I don't live near the coast and have not eaten any raw sea food in my home.

(I'm lucky to have a local supplier of flash frozen wild salmon - a couple nearby fishes in Alaska a few months each year).

The only supplies of sea food around here are the grocery store or "seafood stores," which are just the same as the grocery store - trucked frozen products from New Jersey.

I'd be willing to try clams (and mussels) because they are alive when purchased... Is this a good idea? I'd soak them in mild brine for a few hours first. How do you get them open?

Hmmm - lobsters are alive too, though I wonder about quality because of all that unnaturally blue water they're soaking in.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[TylerDurden]

I eat such seafood. I don't bother with clams as they're too difficult to open and too small. Mussels are fine but most newbies will likely find the taste a bit too acidic. Use a metal walnut-cracker to open the shell, use teeth to get the flesh out and put it in a jar,periodically drain glass/jar of water.


Re lobster:- Put in freezer for several hours till it goes into torpor/suspended animation. Take it out, cut its head off and other parts(I use a meat-knife and pound the knife with a hammer to force the knife through). With crabs, turn them upside down(after they've been put into torpor via the fridge)and use same hammer/knife technique.

[livingthelife]

OK, very good advice...

Do you also eat the frozen-thawed items, or just live stuff?

And only wild, nothing farmed, I assume?

[Raw Kyle]

Does the lobster and crab meat stay solid after thawing?

[TylerDurden]

OK, very good advice...

Do you also eat the frozen-thawed items, or just live stuff?

And only wild, nothing farmed, I assume?

Well, I often forget to take the lobsters out and sometimes leave them for days which kills them, and then I eat some of them frozen rather than waiting. Better to wait until they're thawed. As regards frozen meats, best buy them chilled, not frozen. Freezing bursts the cell-walls  - it's a really bad idea, therefore, to leave meats to thaw for long before eating, after being prefrozen, as prefrozen meat deteriorates faster, as a result.

[goodsamaritan]

In our local market and culture, blue crabs are to be sold alive only.
Ocean crabs are always sold dead.

[livingthelife]

TylerDurden: There's another thread going now about frozen meat that raises some concerns about its potency and safety. Assuming a person eats frozen meat (of any variety) promptly after thawing, other than diminished shelf-life, do you think there is a problem with it?

I think this is a significant issue for many of us because access to fresh RAF is extremely limited.

Thanks for all the good info.

[TylerDurden]

In our local market and culture, blue crabs are to be sold alive only.
Ocean crabs are always sold dead.

Yes, my fisherman is like that, he doesn't mind selling dead shellfish if it's precooked, but if it's sold raw, then it has to be alive, due to his concerns re deterioration.

[TylerDurden]

Does the lobster and crab meat stay solid after thawing?

Well, the crab-meat/lobster-meat is already pretty liquidy. But, it generally stays solid enough after thawing, even after some time.

[TylerDurden]

TylerDurden: There's another thread going now about frozen meat that raises some concerns about its potency and safety. Assuming a person eats frozen meat (of any variety) promptly after thawing, other than diminished shelf-life, do you think there is a problem with it?

I think this is a significant issue for many of us because access to fresh RAF is extremely limited.

Thanks for all the good info.

Look, everyone has to make compromises, every now and then. I have to compromise at Christmas due to having to eat Christmas pudding, for example. The thing is to make sure to make up for such lacks by ensuring higher quality in other areas - so, I, for example, make sure to get organic Christmas Puddings with no vegetable-oils in them, around that time of the year. So if you can't get hold of chilled meats, just prefrozen meats, then eat them very  soon after thawing, and make sure the meats are grassfed/wildcaught etc.

While there is some damage to the frozen meats(enzymes are slightly damaged(and, I believe, destroyed, entirely after 10 weeks  of being frozen,according to 1 RAFer's claim(not Aajonus) and cell-walls are brust, reducing the amounts of nutrients(especially if stored after being thawed), prefrozen meats are, in no way, as harmful as cooked-food as they don't contain toxins(assuming they're nto from intensively-farmed animals).

[livingthelife]

OK, very good. Thank you.