Seafood Butchery Step By Step Guides

Every shellfish and seafood guide on the site, in one place, all free, all written out step by step.

Shellfish is the group where the safety information matters most, so each of these guides says plainly what the real risks are and who should be careful. It is also where the yields surprise people. A live lobster gives back about a quarter of its weight.

Crustaceans

How to Butcher Shrimp

The most eaten seafood in America and the most commonly ruined, almost always before it reaches the pan.

How to Butcher Prawn

Used interchangeably with shrimp in most kitchens. Biologically they are different animals.

How to Butcher Lobster

Breaking one down yourself costs a fraction of picked meat, and the meat is better.

How to Butcher Crab

The best value in the shellfish case and the most work to get at, which is why most people pay four times the price.

Bivalves

How to Shuck Oysters

Looks like a party trick, is mostly a technique problem. Find the hinge, keep the knife flat, do not stab.

How to Shuck Scallops

Most people who think they cannot sear a scallop are fighting the scallop they bought.

Cephalopods and Oddities

How to Butcher Squid

Cheap, quick to clean, and the most reliably ruined thing in the seafood case. One rule fixes it.

How to Clean and Butcher Octopus

The one cephalopod with no fast lane.

How to Clean Uni (Sea Urchin)

Starts with the correction almost every menu in America gets wrong.

Where to Start

Shrimp, then squid. Both are cheap enough that mistakes cost you nothing, and both are ruined far more often by what happens before cooking than by the cooking itself. Learn those two and you have covered most of what goes wrong at a home seafood counter.

Once It Is Cleaned

Who Is Writing This

I am Chef Alan. I have spent 35 years in professional kitchens, I have formal culinary education in New Hampshire, and I have been honored as a 6-Time 4-Diamond Chef. More about me here.

If a guide is missing something you needed, or a step did not make sense, tell me. Get in touch and I will fix it.

Cook Bolder, Serve Wiser, Eat Better.