Day ninety one

Fabricated lean cod

 Where scallops came from...


This was a day for review and preparation for our practical for Seafood identification and fabrication.

We had flounder, lean cod, and trout. Also, quite by a chance, we received scallops in shell, soft shell crabs, and whole anchovies.

To take fillets from anchovies is a messy job. They are small, they are not gutted, so the cutting board was really dirty. The good thing is that we handled them at the end, so I just brought my cutting board to dishwasher pit.

Soft shell crab was an interesting creature. It had really soft

Soft shell crabs in a box

shell (we have eight hours between it through away the old shell and a new one calcified). They way we suppose to handle it was cruel. Chef asked to cut the 'face' off with scissors, and cut the apron of. The poor creature was still alive. I did not do this, it seemed a bit too much. What was bothering me is that they (crabs) were not cooked right away, so they were still alive after that preparation. In case I have to prepare them and to cook right away, I might do this...

Open shell of a scallop

Scallop in a shell was really fun. I have got the bigest one, when I opened shell and cleaned it it was three ounces, it was really huge. In the shell it had a small fish (anchovies size) which was not digested (between 10 and 12 hours on the edge of the shell). It smelled nasty, but the smell gone when I cleaned it.

Tomorrow is our final for Seafood. We will have quiz, practical part, and ID test. Also we suppose to have caviar tasting. I am looking forward to the tasting tomorrow.