Something about the Seafood

Something about the Seafood

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae(family of ray-finned fish).Several other fish in the family are called trout. Salmon live in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Great Lakes and other land locked lakes.

 Salmon are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, and modern research shows that usually at least 90% of the fish spawning in a stream were born there.

Squid are carnivorous mollusks that have a long, torpedo shaped body. At one end, surrounding a beak-like mouth strong enough to cut through steel cable, are five pairs of arms. One pair, thinner and longer than the rest, are used to catch food and bring it to the mouth. Just past the mouth are the eyes. Eyes that are the largest in the animal kingdom, getting as big as eighteen inches across.

All squid move through the ocean using a jet of water forced out of the body by a siphon. The largest squid ever measured was discovered at Timble Tickle on November 2, 1878. Three fishermen were working not far off shore when they noticed a mass floating on the ocean they took to be wreckage. They investigated and found a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor as a grappling hook they snagged the still living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out the creature was left high and dry.  The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with four inch suckers.

Lobsters are large crustaceans. They have hard shells and ten legs, two of which have developed into pincers. Although considered a gourmet food today, lobsters were so plentiful in the 19th century that they were used as bait for fish or even as fertilizer in the fields. Lobsters have firm, rich meat in their bodies, tails, and legs.

Prawns also called shrimp. One and the same creature, the only distinction being one of size, and even that depends on which continent you are on. North Americans call them all shrimp, but in Britain and its colonies the name 'shrimp' is reserved for those of small size, while larger specimens are called 'prawns'.

Small or large, they are one of the most popular crustaceans in Asia, valued for their sweet meat and enticing flavor. They may be caught in salt water, fresh water, rivers, dams, and increasingly they are being farmed. It is better to buy them fresh and raw rather than cooked, as more flavor is retained.

Crabs are of the order Decapods and cover a large variety of different crustaceans. The word crab comes from the Middle English. Of course, the crab is one of the oldest species on earth. The horseshoe crab dates back over 200 million years and is literally a living fossil. Most people are aware of the zodiac sign of Cancer, named for the constellation which resembles the shape of a crab. The majority of edible crabs have five pairs of legs, with the front legs being larger pinchers. Out of the 4,400 varieties of crab, most are found in North America in both salt and fresh water. Second only to shrimp in shellfish popularity, the world is fiercely proud of the crab recipes which spotlight the type of crab most-prized in their region.
Difference between Male/Female Crab

Many recipes specify she-crabs, so you'll need to be able to tell females from males. Luckily, this is easy to do, and you won't need a magnifying glass. Simply look at the underside of the crab. As you will see from the graphic, the female has a broad, triangular-shaped area in the center of the shell, whereas the male has a distinctive, elongated spire in the center.