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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!
How to Make Shellfish Stock
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups shellfish shells, from shrimp, lobster, and/or crab
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced or chopped
- 1 carrot, roughly sliced or chopped
- 1 celery stalk, roughly sliced or chopped
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- Several sprigs parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- 10-15 whole peppercorns
- 2 teaspoons salt
Method
1 Break up larger pieces of shell: Break thick shells (lobster or crab) into smaller pieces by putting in a sealed, thick plastic bag and either rolling with a rolling pin or hitting with a meat hammer to crush.
Cut up thinner shrimp shells with a chef's knife. Don't crush or cut too small. You can even skip this step if you want, if you are already dealing with broken up shell pieces (like cracked crab).
2 Roast shells (optional): Place in a large roasting pan and roast at 400°F for 10 minutes (this step you can skip, but it greatly enhances the flavor).
3 Cover shells with water and heat to not quite a simmer: Put the shells in a large stock pot and add enough water to cover the shells with an inch of water. Heat the water on high. As soon as you see that little bubbles are starting to come up to the surface, reduce the heat to medium.
Do not let the water boil! You want to maintain the temperature at just at the edge of a simmer (around 180°F), where the bubbles just occasionally come up to the surface.
Do not stir the shells! Stirring will muddy up the stock.
Skim the foam. As the bubbles come up to the surface a film of foam will develop on the surface. Use a large metal spoon to skim away this foam. Let the shells cook like this for about an hour; skim the foam every few minutes. The foam comes from shells releasing impurities as their temperature increases.
4 Add the wine, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, herbs, peppercorns: Once the stock has stopped releasing foam, add the wine, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and peppercorns.
Bring to a low simmer and reduce heat so that the stock continues to barely simmer, but not boil, for 30 minutes. If more foam comes to the surface, skim it off. Add salt and remove from heat.
5 Strain through a lined sieve: Use tongs, a large slotted spoon, or a spider strainer to lift out and remove most of the solids from the stock. (Later put in a plastic bag and put outside in the trash! Shellfish shells have a way of stinking up a kitchen.)
Dampen a few layers of cheesecloth and place over a large, fine mesh strainer, over a large pot or bowl.
Pour the stock into the strainer. Either use the stock right away, or cool for future use.
If you aren't going to use in a couple of days, freeze (remember to leave some headroom at the top of your freezer container for the liquid to expand as it freezes.)
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Links:
Williams-Sonoma Mastering Soups and Stews - great book for cooking techniques. I got the basic method for this shellfish stock from this book.
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
How to Make Shellfish Stock
Excellent stock!
xxxxxyyyyy
Making lobster stock now. I have an American Pressure canner. I was going to do quarts. I added tomatoe paste & lemon juice to the stock as it cooks. I know I pressure can French onion soup for 90 minutes. How long should I pressure cook this? Should I add more lemon juice when I go to can? Thank you for any help. Cheers!
xxxxxyyyyy
Hi Chris,
I’m sure people have pressure canned shellfish stock, but there’s no USDA guidelines for doing so. I don’t think you’ll need to add acid, ad the pressure canning time should be enough. Here’s a link with some suggestions (scroll to the “fish and seafood stocks” section). The same resource says, “Remember: fish and seafood stocks are very delicate. Canning processes could affect the quality. In the end, it does seem likely that freezing them may be the best choice to ensure that the stocks don’t get “cooked” so long during processing that they become “overly fishy”.”
Thank you! I did wind up canning it. I went to the US canning site, and pressure canned it for 100 minutes.
What I didn’t can, became a beautiful lobster bisque.
Ok. I just read the article from the link you provided. I’ll freeze my jars in addition to the 100 minutes of pressure canning!! Thank you Sara for your help! Cheers!
Thank you stock, few questions I steam crabs with crab seasoning, I see not mentioned to wash off season which I do for stock.
Shells I wash off season and inside but leave the fat mustard that’s in shell for flavor.
Why is tomatoe paste added with veggies, when that can be added when making soup.
Thanks Ed
Hi Ed,
Thanks for sharing. If you steam crabs with seasoning and you don’t want the flavor to the seasoning, then yes, rinse it off. But some folks may opt to have it.
Adding the tomato paste with the veggies helps give you a darker color and sweeter flavor. Yes, you can eave it out if you prefer a lighter stock.
I made this yesterday with stone crab shells and shrimp tails. Followed pretty closely but my stock is a very dark brown, almost the color of weak coffee even after double straining. Did I do something wrong?
Hi Amanda,
Wow, weak coffee is not standard for shellfish stock, no. I’m going to guess it’s one of two things.
1) Somehow the tomato paste took over the stock.
2) Did you roast the shells? If so, maybe they were a little overroasted.
3) did you use crab shells? Were the guts all cleaned out from them?
I have shrimp shells in my freezer that I keep meaning to make into stock. Amanda, if your stock tastes okay, go ahead and use it, but because of the color, it might be best used in something like gumbo. If you don’t want to (or can’t get what you need to) make gumbo right now, freeze the stock for later.
Made a few tweaks to this. Sautéed the onions a little bit along w carrots and celery before I put in the pot. I actually leave it on the stove longer than the 30 minutes – I let it simmer for about 2 hours. Elise; do you see any issue with this?
Last question – I see a lot of recipes call for “seafood stock”. Can shellfish stock be used in place of “seafood stock” or are they completely different taste profiles ? Thanks! Love the recipe!
xxxxxyyyyy
Hi Tom, well we do simmer the shells for an hour before adding the veggies, so the overall simmering time is about an hour and a half. No issues with sautéing the mirepoix first before adding to the stock, and no issues with letting the stock cook a little longer.
I don’t really see much of a difference between seafood stock and shellfish stock. If you are allergic to shellfish though, you could use fish stock if a recipe calls for seafood stock.