Cooking Techniques How To The Correct Way to Eat Mussels and More Seafood Tips from Martha Stewart The cooking mogul talks about lobster cook times, simple uses for seaweed, and the proper way to eat shellfish. By Maria Yagoda Maria Yagoda Instagram Twitter Maria Yagoda is a senior editor at Food & Wine, where she has worked for five years, specializing in restaurant and travel coverage. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 22, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Martha Stewart is the queen of summer. The iconic cookbook author and food personality lives on a farm in Bedford, New York, but she flocks to her beach house in Maine during the warmer months. During her sold-out panel at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Stewart demonstrated how to prepare a simple one-pot clam bake, one of her favorite summer dishes, and waxed poetic about the glories of fresh seafood prepared simply. She also shared a tip for how to eat mussels, one that she's passed on to her grandchildren, who have, in turn, taught their friends. "Don't unhinge them," she said. "Take the middle out, and then use that to eat all of your mussels. So it's very elegant." She demonstrated. Indeed, using a mussel shell as a utensil—to work out the bellies and eat them—is much more dignified than picking with fingers and much simpler than using forks, which require washing. Our Favorite Ways to Prepare Mussels Galdones Photography/FOOD & WINE Here are more seafood insights from Stewart. Don't be intimidated by seaweed In Maine, Stewart strolls the beach and collects seaweed, upon which she often serves oysters on the half-shell. So even if you don't feel comfortable cooking with seaweed, you can use it for presentation. "At my house in Maine, there's seaweed everywhere," Stewart told Food & Wine. "I get kombu. You can pick that up out of the ocean and dry it. It takes like 12 months." After drying the seaweed she mixes it with salt to create seaweed salt, which makes for a robust and briny seasoning. Is America Finally Ready to Embrace Kelp? These Folks Hope So Memorize these numbers for cooking lobster "If it's a pound and a quarter fresh from the sea, that's about 13 minutes, up to 18 minutes [of cooking]," said Stewart. "Over 18 minutes, it's overcooked." (She also said that she likes to boil her lobsters with a cup of vodka, because "if you were going to be boiled alive, you'd want to have a drink also.") An easy way to tell if you've overcooked your lobster? "When you open the lobster and the claw is half the size of the shell, you've overcooked." Also: The very first thing Stewart does when she buys lobsters is hang them until all the excess water has drained out. Our Best Lobster Recipes Take a close look at clams before buying them Make sure that the clam shells are tightly closed before you buy them, said Stewart. And "if they're trying to sell you clams that have cracked shells, say, 'No, not that one.'" If there's going to be a bit of time between buying them and cooking them, make sure to keep the clams "icy cold," but don't freeze them. A Guide to Every Type of Clam You Can Buy in the U.S. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit