Martha Stewart’s Top 15 Seafood Cooking Tips

Martha Stewart is known for her expertise in entertaining, home living, and cooking, which encompasses a wide range of talents, including a certain touch with seafood. Indeed, she has spent a great deal of time in coastal areas, particularly at her grand estate in Seal Habor, Maine, which is close to the ocean. She has spoken fondly of the place, even describing an instance where she would go down to the dock at night to catch squid by shining a flashlight into the water. That is to say, she seems to have some very detailed knowledge of seafood, from how to catch it to how to prepare it.

As such, we’ve put together a list of some of Stewart’s best tips on how to cook seafood, a type of meal that is often daunting to many people. Seafood can, indeed, be intimidating for the uninitiated, as it may require cleaning, scaling, deveining, or any number of other seemingly mysterious processes. With Stewart’s tips, all that should be a thing of the past.

You may have heard that it can be useful to cook lobster with some white wine because it pairs so well with the crustacean, but Martha Stewart suggests going for something a bit stronger when cooking lobster. In particular, she advises adding about ½ cup of vodka or tequila to the pot of water in which you will boil or steam your lobster. As the liquor evaporates, it leaves behind an added depth of flavor, which seeps into the meat of the lobster along with any salt you may have tossed in.

Another reason Stewart cites for using hard liquor seems to be based on humanitarian grounds. As she explains in a Facebook post, “If you were going to be boiled alive, wouldn’t you want a drink first?” This may also explain why she goes for vodka instead of white wine. When you’re about to bite the dust, wine just doesn’t cut it.

There is something inherently suspicious about a plate of shrimp sitting out on the table for an extended period of time. We’ve all met someone who has experienced food poisoning at the hands of undercooked or spoiled shrimp, and we’re not likely to forget about it. But when Martha Stewart is the one preparing that shrimp, perhaps we can give her the benefit of the doubt.

Indeed, her methods seem quite sound, at least when it comes to shrimp, which she advises people to buy from a reputable fishmonger and to make sure they don’t smell fishy. After that, it’s important to keep the shrimp chilled throughout the display process, which you can do on a cake stand by keeping the stand itself in the fridge (with or without the shrimp) until go time (much like you would do with a martini glass in the freezer). After that, be sure to layer the shrimp in an attractive formation around the cake stand, complemented with a burst of leafy greens, as Stewart does.

Since Martha Stewart spends a fair amount of time at her estate in Maine, it’s fair to say that she probably knows quite a bit about lobster, the quintessential Maine summer food. Indeed, she has so many tips on how to prepare lobster that it’s hard to parse them all out, but one important tip involves the use of dinner rolls (instead of the more common hot dog rolls) to serve lobster rolls.

This is a particularly great option if you don’t have much lobster meat and are looking to stretch it to create a fun appetizer. Stewart’s method of preparing lobster rolls involves pull-apart dinner rolls that are split at the top (rather than cut through the middle), brushed with copious amounts of butter (always a must when it comes to lobster), and warmed briefly in the oven. Finally, the lobster salad gets tucked into the rolls and drizzled with even more butter.

If you’ve never prepared shrimp at home before, the notion of cooking it for the first time can seem daunting, especially given its reputation as a bottom-feeding bacteria carrier. But if you follow Martha Stewart’s advice on how to handle fresh shrimp, the food may become your new go-to dinner favorite.

Let’s start at the beginning, which is choosing the shrimp itself at the market. It’s important to be aware that there are many different types of shrimp, including cold water pink shrimp, which are sweeter and more tender than warm water varieties; warm water white shrimp, which typically hail from Florida; freshwater white shrimp, which are among the heftiest; rock shrimp, which are smaller and harder to peel and devein; tiger shrimp, which often come from Asia; wild Pacific white shrimp, which are very large and usually come with their heads on. In a YouTube video, Stewart suggests that whichever type you go for, you “make sure their bodies are firm, and that they smell only slightly, if at all, fishy.” She explains that shrimp are notoriously fragile, so they need to be as fresh as possible before consumption.

Once you’ve picked your shrimp, unless you’re dealing with a bag of frozen and prepared shrimp, it’s time to properly devein them. Martha Stewart says that the operation is not too hard, so we’re already starting off on the right foot. In fact, the feet are what should come off first, and Stewart removes them with a paring knife before tackling those unsightly black veins that are visible along the backs of most shrimp.

Next, peel the shrimp, taking care to leave the tail intact, which helps you pick up the shrimp later if it’s going to be eaten as finger food, as with shrimp cocktail –- not to mention that it would be a waste to toss a perfectly good piece of meat. Lastly, take that paring knife, run it down the back of the shrimp to open up a fissure, then simply pull out that black or grey vein, and rinse the shrimp before cooking.

A simple and delicious way to prepare shrimp is by boiling it, an operation that takes two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Indeed, shrimp take so little time to cook that it would be best not to step away from the pot until they’re done, or you risk overcooking them into something rubbery and unpalatable.

That doesn’t mean a shrimp boil is boring, though. You will have to spend a little time preparing a fragrant broth in which to boil that shrimp, or you may end up with something entirely flavorless. Martha Stewart suggests adding lemons to five quarts of boiling water, along with the juice, four cloves of peeled and smashed garlic, and peeled onions. After that, the key is to add the ideal combination of spices to the broth. Although Stewart says you can buy some pretty good spice mixes, she advocates making your own with some spicy red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, bay leaves, all-spice berries, coriander seeds, and dill seed, all combined in a bundle of cheesecloth that will be dipped in the water.

As with turkeys and other whole poultry, the length of cooking time for salmon varies depending on the size of the fish or filet. If this seems like too vague a prescription, consider Martha Stewart’s tip for cooking salmon posted on TikTok, where she explains that the fish should be broiled for about 10 minutes for every inch of thickness. So pull out your measuring tape, and simply determine your cooking time in a simple, mathematical way.

In the video, Stewart uses a mixture of honey and Dijon mustard to create a glaze, but you can use any type of topping for this cooking method -– just be careful not to use anything that is prone to burning quickly, like dry spices, as these may cause the same to form a rough crust on the top during broiling–perhaps an ideal outcome for steak, but not so great for salmon.

It may seem barbaric, but when dealing with mollusks, it’s important to eat them as fresh as possible, and the freshest anything can be is when it’s alive. This is why, as Martha Stewart and Chris Schlesinger explain in this YouTube video, uncooked clams and mussels should be chucked if they are open (or can’t be encouraged to seal shut with a light touch), and cooked ones should be tossed if they didn’t automatically open up during the cooking process.

Another fun tidbit Stewart provides in this video is an easy way to actually eat the mussel or clam itself. They can sometimes be tough to pry away from their shell with a regular fork or your teeth, so she shows us a handy trick: Take an empty shell that is still intact and use it as a pincer to pull out the meat of the mollusk and pop it cleanly into your mouth. No slurping necessary (unless you want to).

This classic dish, made with sole, is named meunière after the French word for “miller’s wife,” so expect it to rely heavily on flour. Indeed, Martha Stewart specifically advocates the use of instant flour, which is so fine it will dissolve instantly when the fish, coated in this flour, hits the pan.

Aside from that, the dish relies just as heavily on butter, which is a key ingredient for depth of flavor. But not just any butter will do here: Stewart uses clarified butter to avoid burning the fish or the butter itself before the dish is cooked through. Since the milk solids and water have been removed from clarified butter, the liquid has a much higher smoke point than regular butter, causing it to burn less easily. Once the fish is in the pan, make sure all sides of it touch the butter, and keep it moving regularly to keep it from burning or sticking to the pan.

Smoking fish may seem like a highly specialized skill that requires fancy equipment, but according to Martha Stewart, this isn’t true. In fact, anyone can make smoked fish at home with common kitchen tools and the right ingredients, which is to say, little more than a charcoal grill and aromatic wood chips (Stewart suggests apple wood, alder, pecan, hickory, maple, oak, cherry, or peach).

Once you have your materials and your fish, it’s time to get smoking: Just place your wood chips of choice on top of the burning coals in a grill set up for indirect heat, and smoke the fish for 12-30 minutes, depending on its size, taking care not to over smoke it, which could dry it out. But beware: Not all fish lend themselves well to smoking. For best results, Stewart suggests using trout fillets, arctic char, salmon, whitefish, herring, sturgeon, haddock, mackerel, tuna, and other fatty fishes.

Cleaning squid can be a messy business, especially if you haven’t left that part up to your fishmonger. So, it’s only natural that you might want to rinse it after the cleaning is complete. Martha Stewart does this as well, but she also cautions against over-rinsing it. First of all, it’s not really necessary when the squid is super fresh, but more to the point, over-rinsing or soaking the squid in water will get rid of that taste of the sea in whatever dish you’re preparing. This flavor helps define foods like fried calamari rings (calamari being the Italian and Greek terms for the same fish), so it’s important to keep some of that briny goodness and not wash it all away.

Other important tips for cleaning a squid involve starting by removing the head by gently pulling it out of the body, which sounds scary, but according to Stewart, even a five-year-old can do it (she taught her granddaughter to do it). Then, you’ll take out the backbone, which looks like a thin, clear shard of plastic. Finally, it’s time to pull off the side flaps the fish uses to swim, which also makes the skin come right off.

One of the great things about many fish, is that they have a wonderful, flaky texture when properly cooked. But it is that very flakiness that also causes certain fish to easily stick to the pan, causing you to leave half of it there when you dish it up–a real waste. Luckily, Martha Stewart has an easy solution for this dilemma when searing or baking fish, taking her cue from Kate McCue of the Institute of Culinary Education.

First, the fish needs to be taken out of the fridge at least 20 minutes before cooking to allow it to reach room temperature, or its coldness may interfere with the temperature of the pan, which needs to be red-hot. Then, make sure the fish is dry –- putting a wet fish in a hot pan can cause too much steam to rise, turning a searing operation into a steaming one. Lastly, season the fish with salt and pepper, which will create a barrier between the fish and the fat used in the pan, which should be clarified butter or an oil with a very high smoke point to avoid burning the fish. Together, these steps will ensure your cooked fish will slide right off the pan, leaving nothing behind. Of course, you can always use a nonstick pan, but where’s the fun in that?

Fish can seem like a daunting thing to cook: It can be expensive and laborious, so many people tend to pass it up in favor of something simpler. But that would be a mistake since fish can be even easier than some meats to prepare, and if you follow an easy recipe, you don’t have to worry about messing it up and wasting your money.

One such recipe is Martha Stewart’s oil-poached fish, which only takes about eight to 12 minutes of dipping a fish into moderately hot oil at about 150 degrees Fahrenheit (the oil must not be very hot, as in deep frying or searing). Just be sure to use enough oil to coat the fish entirely so the flavor will be instantly locked in. Almost any fish will do for this operation, but Stewart recommends meaty, oily fish like tuna or salmon.

One of the simplest ways to enjoy fresh fish is by grilling it and topping it with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. If you’re working with a good-quality fish with lots of flavor, this recipe will taste anything but boring. Indeed, Martha Stewart suggests grilling fish whole, with the skin on, and simply stuffing some aromatics into its middle (after cleaning it out). This brief prep work is the key to a successful grilled fish.

Any aromatics you like will surely be a success, but Stewart recommends a mixture of lemon and dill or a combination of lime, basil, and Thai chiles. Either way, make sure there is plenty of citrus on hand to drizzle on top of the cooked fish. As for the quantity, you can either choose some small fish and serve one per person or opt for a large one you can cut up and divide between your guests. Stewart is particularly partial to branzino because of the ease of removing its bones.

If you frequently marinate meat before cooking it, you know that it can take some time for flavors to seep into beef or chicken. It’s not uncommon for a recipe to call for marinating to occur overnight or for at least eight hours. This is not the case with fish, which requires much less time to soak up the juices from a marinade.

In fact, according to Martha Stewart, a mere 20 minutes will suffice to marinate most fish and shellfish, which is great news if you forget to prepare your dish the night before and only have a few hours left until showtime. If you have a bigger, heartier fish like salmon, you might want to extend that time to an hour, but you certainly won’t need eight hours or more. As for the marinade, many recipes you use on meat, such as teriyaki-based marinades, will go nicely with fish as well and be ready in less time. If you need more specific guidance, educate yourself on some of the best and worst types of marinades for salmon.