Shellfish

Shellfish cook in minutes and punish inattention, which is why the same cook who nails a roast chicken can serve rubbery shrimp. This collection is about the short, decisive window between raw and ruined: peeling and deveining shrimp, cleaning clams and mussels, and reading the opacity and curl cues that say a piece of shellfish is exactly done. We keep the safety guidance plain and correct — shrimp, lobster, and crab are done when the flesh turns pearly and opaque, and bivalves that refuse to open after cooking get discarded, not pried. Beyond safety, the goal is confidence: timing charts you can trust, methods ranked by forgiveness, and honest notes on frozen versus fresh.