Fish & Seafood

Crab legs of all kinds are perfect for special occasions. Here's what sets snow crab and king crab apart.

Our primer on choosing and buying Dungeness, king, and snow crab legs.

Peeling and deveining shrimp isn't hard. Here's how to do it, exactly the way I was taught at culinary school.

With this step-by-step guide, you'll be cooking up perfectly butterflied shrimp in no time.

Here's how to eat these tasty (and pricey!) little fish eggs the right way.

Here's how much it costs, what it tastes like, and a guide to the different types.

A small amount of it goes a long way.

Buying the right kind of fish can be a bit challenging. Your recipe might call for a specific type of fish or it may just have the very generic term: “white fish.” Fish can be very regional and sometimes the seafood counter has only a few options to choose from, so how do you shop for the correct type of fish? White fish is often referred to tilapia, cod, bass, grouper, haddock, catfish, and snapper. They are great for frying, searing, using in soups and chowders.

It's super-easy and the fish doesn't stick to the grill.

The fun of sliders, but with even less work!

I used to cook fish for a living. Here are my best tips.

Contrary to popular belief, we should be eating the fish more often than we think.

“The texture of the filling will be so creamy and so irresistible if you do that,” says recipe developer and food photographer Julie Tran Deily.

Cooking fish may seem a bit intimidating at first. What kind of fish should you buy? How do you keep it from sticking to the pan? But once you take the plunge, the rewards are delicious. Knowing when the fish is ready takes a little know-how, and we’re here to help. According to the USDA’s Safe Minimum Cooking Temperature Guide, cook fish until the center reaches 145°F on an instant-read or meat thermometer.

I just love getting ikura sushi – those jewel-like, glistening orange balls of salty goodness are the eggs, or roe of salmon. They’re delicious, sustainable, and economical. They also have a wonderful mouthfeel. Where do you buy it and what do you do with it?The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch ranks it as a “Best Choice” in sustainability. Ikura is the fully-ripe ovaries of salmon, and ranges from dark orange to reddish-orange in color.

Here are the main types of salmon you'll find for sale in the United States, plus the best ways to cook each one.

It'll change the way you cook fish from here on out.

Here's everything you need to know about this dish.

Never hesitate at the fish counter again.

You know, for when you’re feeling shellfish.

All your questions, answered.

The right type will make grilling easier.

Perfect salmon, every time, thanks to a little technique we don't often use on fish.

It doesn't have to be expensive, and it's so easy to cook!

It's commonly used on chicken, but it's even better with shrimp.

It works every time.

Pin bones are pesky little buggers. Here you have a pristine fillet of fish and lurking just below the surface are these slippery needle-like bones that refuse to be easily removed. You can ask the fishmonger to remove them for you, but with a little practice, tenacity, and a handy pair of needle-nose pliers, you can do it yourself. And remove them you must because biting into one of these bones — or worse, choking on one — is a highly unpleasant experience.

When you’re talking about a topping for bagels and cream cheese, lox is the name most tossed around — it just sounds natural to order a bagel with lox and cream cheese. But is lox really just smoked salmon? Here’s a guide to what lox really is, as well as a primer on how different types of smoked salmon are made. Lox was traditionally only made from the belly of salmon, although other parts of the fish are now also used.

I’m half-Thai, so fish sauce is a staple in my kitchen, showing up in everything from omelets to salad dressings. But I usually keep it pretty traditional, which is why I was excited to see cookbook author Naomi Duguid’s ideas for using fish sauce in unexpected ways — like in guacamole! Duguid writes about stumbling onto the happy combination of avocado and fish sauce in this month’s issue of Cooking Light.

I used to turn up my nose at canned salmon — and canned fish in general —but I’ve come to realize there is no better and more affordable way to incorporate healthy fish into your diet on a weekly basis. And as a busy grad student, I always appreciate having a shelf-stable protein on hand for quick weeknight dinners. And canned salmon is tasty! Here are some of my favorite ways to turn a humble can of salmon into a satisfying dinner. • 1 Make it into cakes.

Our family had a very low key, perfect New Year’s Eve. The five of us headed to Edisto Island, with my mother in law joining us for one night, for a gloriously reclusive New Year. We picked up a bushel of oysters and steamed them in the oven, toasting 2014 hours before midnight, when only two of us remained awake. The next morning, we had leftover oysters. Even in a minimalist vacation rental kitchen, oyster stew is easy.

I am someone who stands among the canned beans at the grocery store, searching for the cheapest can. I mean, they are canned beans — they are all cheap! And yet, if I can get one that’s a few cents less than the others, I feel like I’ve won. It definitely drives my fiancé (and probably anyone else around me at the store) nuts. Being as frugal as I am, you wouldn’t think I splurge on high-end food items — but I actually do.

Like chicken or pasta, fish is really a blank slate when it comes to preparing it for dinner. Yet, unlike chicken or pasta, fish has a reputation of being hard to prepare, which makes it feel a bit daunting. The truth, however, is fish is just as easy to turn into a quick, flavorful dinner as those other guys. The key is to embrace a few simple tricks that will jazz up just about any fillet you bring home. Jazzing up your fish routine at home is easy.

Frozen salmon fillets are a freezer staple these days. Keep a few fillets on hand and you have a healthy meal on your hands at all times without having to run to the fish market on your way home. Transfer a portion or two to the fridge in the morning to defrost, and in the evening you’ll have countless options for dinner. Here are 10 ideas to get you started. Salmon might not be the first fish that comes to mind when you’re thinking tacos, but it makes for some seriously tasty ones.

Walk into just about every grocery store or fish market and you’ll find tilapia. Somewhere along the line it became as common and as popular as salmon. The fact that it doesn’t taste too fishy, is versatile to cook, and isn’t expensive probably has something to do with it. Most tilapia also sustainable, since it tends to be farmed pretty responsibly these days — especially in the U.S. and Canada.

It’s my day job here at Kitchn that convinced me that frozen shrimp was worth keeping in my freezer at all times. Previously, I’d simply buy shrimp from the fish counter at the grocery store when I needed it. Then my colleagues kept gushing about the freshness and convenience of frozen shrimp and I soon realized a whole lot of the “fresh” shrimp I was buying at the grocery store was actually previously frozen. So I gave it a try and almost instantly became a convert.

These simple steps will ensure perfectly flaky salmon, every single time.

If your regular salad order skews toward a bowl of greens tossed with shrimp and a medley of chili-spiced ingredients for punchy Southwestern flare, this is the DIY salad kit to keep in your lunch rotation. And we’ve got a couple smart grocery store shortcuts help it come together fast. A good source of protein is an essential element in any salad that serves as a meal. It’s what helps to fill you up and keep you full.

Maine’s cold, clean water makes it ideal for seafood of all kind: lobster, to be sure, but also oysters, those sweet and briny bivalves that we often associate with cooler climes. But, in Maine, you can (and should!) eat oysters all year round. We caught up with oyster farmers Valy Steverlynck and Eric Horne to find out the best way to shuck your oysters — and how to eat them (besides slurped straight from the shell).

Cooking fish at home can be tricky. Because it’s lean and relatively quick-cooking, the line between just-right and dry, overcooked fish is really quite thin — especially with baking and grilling. But what if I told you there’s a nearly foolproof solution that will help you avoid overcooking and the super-dry, flaky result that comes with it? If you’re thinking it sounds too good to be true, it’s not. Here’s the secret.

We can all probably agree that fish tastes best with crispy skin, but with the high heat and time it takes to sear the skin, the fish itself frequently gets overcooked. Especially when using thinner or less fatty pieces of fish, getting the best of both worlds seems impossible. Not quite. That was my conundrum until a chef in culinary school showed me that a simple, flat-bottomed, metal container along with some ice would do the trick.

If you’re wary of anchovies, I encourage you to give them a try. You see, if you like Caesar salad, you like anchovies. If you have a bottle of Worcestershire sauce in your refrigerator door that you reach for now and again, you like anchovies. So it’s worth giving the beast (or should I say, tiny fish) a shot. But go to the store and you’ll find that you have a few options.

Salmon is the darling, do-it-all fish of the seafood section. It delivers when you need a quick and simple weeknight meal, knows how to pull its weight as the star of a dinner party, and can even be a hands-off affair. This is the kind of fish you can rely on. Even if it has a regular place in your dinner lineup, here are five helpful tips to keep in your back pocket. Despite what you may have been told, the color of the flesh does not necessarily indicate a better piece of fish.

One of my favorite stories to tell about my brother Grahame is the time he thought a pin bone from a fillet salmon was going to be his demise. He missed the thin, flexible bone when he took a bite of salmon and it became uncomfortably lodged in his throat, making him so worried that he insisted on being taken to the doctor for help.

Scallops can make your dinner feel totally luxurious and indulgent, with the added bonus that they cook in minutes with very little effort. There’s a wide variety of scallop species, but what you really need to know is that this tasty bivalve is classified into two broad groups: bay scallops and sea scallops. At first sight you’ll notice that size really sets these two varieties of scallops apart. Bay scallops are relatively small, while sea scallops can be up to three times larger.

It’s long been an argument that fish (and in this case, salmon) is never as good on the second day. Yes, I’ll agree that it’s superior freshly cooked, but just like any other food, there are times when you’ll have leftovers — no matter how hard you try to buy and cook just the right amount. But leftover salmon can actually be just as good if you know the right way to reheat it.

I wasn’t quite sure what to ask for when I went into my local fish shop. “I’d like to cook some small fish,” I said awkwardly. “What do you have?” The fishmonger sold me on some anchovies, imported the day before from Portugal, and a perch, brought to the shop that morning from the nearby Long Island Sound. The fishmonger cleaned the fish and cut the tails and heads off the anchovies. Now I just needed to figure out how to cook them.

You went to the store, bought yourself a gorgeous, pinky-red fillet of salmon, came home and cooked it just like the recipe said, and all of a sudden this white, filmy gunk has begun to seep out of your beautiful fish. Not cool salmon, not cool. So, what exactly is this stuff? What causes it to show up, and is there anything you can do to prevent it? Alright, let’s get straight to it. The white stuff (or albumin) is coagulated protein, not fat, which in my opinion is a relief.

Made from salted fermented fish, fish sauce is staple ingredient for seasoning in in many Southeast Asian cuisines. A whiff from the bottle reveals its pungent aroma and alludes to its very distinct, very potent taste. When combined with other ingredients like sugar and fresh herbs, the sharpness of fish sauce mellows out, its deeply savory side emerges, and its ability to add a lush umami-richness to everything it touches becomes apparent.

There’s a lot to love about cooking salmon at home. It’s relatively affordable (as far as seafood goes), super versatile, delicious, and for bonus points, it cooks quickly. But there is one thing that can prove pretty bothersome: the film of white albumin that sometimes leaches from the fish as it cooks. There’s an easy and nearly foolproof step to seriously reduce, if not eliminate, that icky white albumin altogether. I’m talking about brining!

When it comes to cooking salmon, versatility reigns. This is a fish that works with a huge variety of flavor combinations, and you can take your pick of cooking method. Dress it up for a dinner party with a slow roast, or keep it casual for a mid-week meal with a quick sear for a grain bowl. Either way, you can get salmon on the table pretty quickly. But before you turn on the heat, don’t let these blunders get in the way of your perfect salmon dinner.

There are so many food production concerns these days, whether it’s about pesticides, GMOs, or sustainable meat or fish. It’s nearly impossible to tackle them all and tackle them successfully — especially when the best answer isn’t always clear. And that’s exactly the case when it comes to choosing between farmed and wild salmon. If you’ve come across the topic before, you know that it’s one that’s been hotly debated.

Q: I bought anchovy paste for a recipe and now I have no idea what else to use it for. I know it works in Caesar salad dressing and puttanesca, but what else? Also, how long does it last in the fridge? (I have the tube kind.) Thanks! Sent by Campbell Editor: Anchovy paste is one of those ingredients that I always have on hand because it’s a flavor amplifier — especially when used judiciously in the background of a dish.

Do you have a bottle of clam juice in your pantry? Maybe the bottle you have is lurking in the back of the fridge after you used it in that one recipe that called for one tablespoon. Let’s be honest — this isn’t an ingredient making it into your everyday cooking. Well, not until now. Clam juice can also be used in cocktails, pastas, stir-fries, and deglazing your pan. Here are five ways to use clam juice so that bottle doesn’t get lost in the dark depths of your fridge.

Q: What species is whitefish? Whitefish describes many kinds of white fish, right? I am very curious! Sent by Laurie The Gefilteria’s Jeffrey Yoskowitz: I wish I could tell you how many conversations about this very topic I’ve been a part of. First of all, yes, there is actually a whitefish species. The whitefish that is generally smoked and served in salad and found in appetizing shops (and in most gefilte fish recipes) is Coregonus clupeaformis, otherwise known as Lake Whitefish.

“Gefilte fish without chrain (horseradish) is punishment enough,” goes the old Yiddish proverb. Of course, as someone who’s crazy enough to produce gefilte fish for a living, I disagree wholeheartedly. But I can’t deny that the classic Jewish fish appetizer and its sinus-clearing condiment have a deep and meaningful relationship. One of my earliest Jewish food memories is actually refusing to eat the gefilte fish offered to me during the seder meal.

Whether you’re making ceviche or poke, you can keep the heat off, because neither of these two refreshing seafood-driven plates need any time on the stove. With raw pieces of fish cut into chunks and combined with a marinade and toppings, these two foods might seem (and even look) pretty similar, but do you know what sets them apart?

The efforts to combat overfishing have reached a new frontier: faux foods. Certainly most people are familiar with krab, but are you ready to dig in to a plate of faux shrimp? I have to admit, I’m a little wary. With an ingredient list that contains broken-down red algae and a production process that’s been compared to baking bread, New Wave‘s product doesn’t sound wholly appetizing.

Tuna salad is a tried-and-true lunchtime classic. Whether you pile it into a sandwich, eat it with crackers, or mix it into your salad greens, it makes for a fast and satisfying meal. But as good as it is, I think we can agree that it’s high time things got a little more interesting. Meet five new versions of tuna salad that give the classic a major overhaul.

Around the time I started stocking my own pantry, many years ago, I learned a quick lesson about one of my favorite lunch staples: Canned tuna is not just canned tuna. Albacore, chunk light, packed in water, packed in oil … what does it all mean? What’s the difference between them? And does it really matter? There’s certainly no shortage of options when it comes to buying canned tuna.