The first time I made mussels, I thought I was the most amazing chef in the world. It was in college, and a friend taught me how to steam them with white wine, shallots and a little heavy cream. Before that, Buy shellfish online had not really been a part of my life, not because of any dietary restrictions, but because shellfish were weird. I imagine the first person to eat an oyster did so on a drunken dare, bashing open what was obviously rock and then shouting, “Hey, there's meat in this rock!” Actually, the first person to eat an oyster probably saw gulls doing it first, but still, shellfish, whether they’re crabs or clams, can be complicated. They have hard casings that need to be coaxed open or just broken, and if you let them spoil (which they seem ready to do at any moment) it'll probably be the worst night you've ever had.
However, according to Tim Richardson, Executive Chef at Hank’s Seafood Restaurant in Charleston, SC, there's nothing to fear. “Cooking shellfish at home can seem daunting to the novice but can be pretty simple and delicious,” he said over email. As with most things though, you have to know how to look for quality in your product. What that looks like varies depending on what you're getting. For bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters), you want to make sure the shell is closed, because this means they're still alive. If you find an open mussel, you can check by tapping the hinge on a table — it will close up if it's still alive. When buying oysters, “if you tap on the shell with a knife, there shouldn’t be a hollow sound,” says Richardson, and all of them should smell fresh like the sea. That goes for shrimp as well, which should “not have any ammonia scent coming from them.”