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SHELLFISH STOCK FOOD PHOTOS, STOCK FOOD PICTURES & FOOD PHOTO ART PRINTS

Stock photos & stock pictures gallery of shellfish.

Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater. In addition a few species of land crabs are eaten, for example Cardisoma guanhumi in the Caribbean. Archaeological finds has shown that humans have been making use of shellfish as a food item for hundreds of thousands of years. In the present, shellfish dishes are a feature of almost all the cuisines of the world, providing an important source of protein in many cuisines around the world, especially in the countries with coastal areas.

PRAWNS PHOTOS & PICTURES

Prawns are decapod crustaceans, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata.[3] The term “prawn” is also used in various contexts for other animals, especially caridean shrimp.[4] They are found worldwide and include commercially significant species, such as the whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, Atlantic white shrimp Penaeus setiferus, Indian prawn Fenneropenaeus indicus and tiger prawn Penaeus monodon.

SCALLOPS PHOTOS & PICTURES

A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusc of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world’s oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source. The brightly colored, fan-shaped shells of some scallops, with their radiating fluted pattern, are valued by shell collectors. The name “scallop” is derived from the Old French escalope, which means “shell”.

Scallops are a popular type of shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are characterized by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called “scallop” which is white and meaty, and the roe, called “coral”, which is red or white and soft.
In Western cuisine, scallops are commonly sautéed in butter, or else breaded and deep fried. Scallops are commonly paired with light semi-dry white wines. When a scallop is prepared, the byssus, also called the beard[5], which tends to be tough, is usually discarded or used later on for stock.[6] Sometimes, markets sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the adductor muscle intact. Outside the U.S. the scallop is often sold whole.

LOBSTERS PHOTOS & PICTURES

Clawed lobsters comprise a family (Nephropidae, sometimes also Homaridae) of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets more than US$1 billion annually.

Though several groups of crustaceans are known as “lobsters,” the clawed lobsters are most often associated with the name. They are also revered for their flavor and texture. Clawed lobsters are not closely related to spiny lobsters or slipper lobsters, which have no claws (chelae), or squat lobsters. The closest relatives of clawed lobsters are the reef lobsters and the three families of freshwater crayfish.

Lobster recipes include Lobster Newberg and Lobster Thermidor. Lobster is used variously, for example in soup, bisque or lobster rolls. Lobster meat may be dipped in clarified butter, resulting in a sweetened flavour.

Cooks boil live lobsters in water or steam. The lobster simmers for seven minutes for the first pound and three minutes for each additional pound. Lobsters are also fried, grilled, or baked.

The European lobster, Homarus gammarus, found commonly around Britain and Ireland, is more expensive, smaller and rarer than the American lobster. Originally, it was consumed chiefly by the royal and aristocratic families of France and the Netherlands; such scenes were depicted in Dutch Golden Age paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries.

In North America, the American lobster did not achieve popularity until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste; not until the invention of a special vessel, the lobster smack, did a commercial fishery flourish.[19] Prior to this time, lobster was considered a mark of poverty or as a food for indentured servants or lower members of society in Maine, Massachusetts and the Canadian Maritimes, and servants specified in employment agreements that they would not eat lobster more than twice per week.[20] In Canada, outside of the rural outposts lobster was sold canned.[citation needed] New England’s fresh lobster trade extended as far as Philadelphia.

The lobster market changed once the transportation industry could deliver live lobsters to urban centers. Fresh lobster became a luxury food and a tourist attraction for the Maritime provinces and a luxury export to Europe and Japan where it is especially expensive.

OYSTER PHOTOS & PICTURES

The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve mollusks which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified. Some kinds of oyster are commonly consumed by humans, cooked or raw. Other kinds, such as pearl oysters, are not.

The French seaside resort of Cancale is noted for its oysters, which also date from Roman times. Sergius Orata of the Roman Republic is considered the first major merchant and cultivator of oysters. Using his considerable knowledge of hydraulics, he built a sophisticated cultivation system, including channels and locks, to control the tides. He was so famous for this that the Romans used to say he could breed oysters on the roof of his house.

Middens testify to the prehistoric importance of oysters as food. In the United Kingdom, the town of Whitstable is noted for oyster farming from beds on the Kentish Flats that have been used since Roman times.

The world-famous Clarenbridge and Galway Oyster Festivals take place in Galway, Ireland each September. In Ireland it is traditional to eat them live with Guinness and buttered brown soda bread.

In the early 19th century, oysters were cheap and mainly eaten by the working class. Throughout the 19th century, oyster beds in New York harbor became the largest source of oysters worldwide. On any day in the late 19th century, six million oysters could be found on barges tied up along the city’s waterfront. Oysters were naturally quite popular in New York City, and helped initiate the city’s restaurant trade. New York’s oystermen became skilled cultivators of their beds, which provided employment for hundreds of workers and nutritious food for thousands. Eventually, rising demand exhausted many of the beds. To increase production, they introduced foreign species, which brought disease, when combined with effluent and increasing sedimentation from erosion, which destroyed most of the beds by the early 20th century. Oysters’ popularity has put an ever-increasing demands on wild oyster stocks. This scarcity increased prices, converting them from their original role as working class food to their current status as an expensive delicacy.

In the United Kingdom, the native variety is still held to be the finest, requiring five years to mature and protected by an Act of Parliament during the May–August spawning season. The current market is dominated by the larger Pacific oyster and rock oyster varieties which are farmed year round.

Buy all the stock photos in this gallery on line as Royalty Free or Rights managed stock photo. The stock pictures & stock images are all high resolution digital stock photos made award winning professional photographer Paul Williams.

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