Years ago, on a little island off the coast of Marblehead, Massachusetts, a friend’s aunt showed me how to eat a lobster, including the fine art of sucking the tender meat and juice out of the spindly legs. It was July, when lobsters are in season, and we had a huge pot of them for our gang. Aunt Judy then explained that one makes lobster bisque from the leftover shells. I still recall my astonishment. How could something so delicious come from boiled shells?

While New England has its summer lobster season, we in Northern California have our winter Dungeness crab season. In anticipation of making stock for seafood bisques and stews, I have been collecting our leftover shells from each crab feast and freezing them. Making seafood stock is similar to making chicken stock; it takes time and attention, and the final result makes it worth the effort. Best to do on a weekend afternoon. Make a big batch and freeze what you don’t need.

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