What to Do When You Have Seafood Shipped

When you have seafood shipped from a fish market that buys fresh seafood daily, you get fresher, better tasting fish and seafood delivered directly to your door. If you’ve never bought seafood online before, these tips can help you order seafood online safely and keep it fresh after it’s delivered until you’re ready to serve it up.

Shop at a Real Fish Market

Whether you’re looking for shellfish like lobster tails or halibut for sashimi or sushi, the first step in getting high quality fresh product is to order seafood from a reputable, real fish market that does business locally as well as online. Fish markets that have a local presence tend to work very hard to keep up their reputation by providing only the best and freshest fish and seafood. Unlike many online fish suppliers who buy frozen fish in bulk and resell it over the Internet, a real fish market sources fish from local suppliers and only buys enough to meet their needs. When trying to decide where to buy halibut or other fish online, always opt for a fish market that has a real-world local presence.

Check the Online Reviews

The other advantage to buying from a local fish market – even if it’s not local to you – is that today’s social media makes it very easy to check the market’s reputation with those who know it best – its regular customers. Definitely do check the reviews for fish markets on sites like Yelp. If local customers tell you that they buy amazing, awesome lobster tails, halibut cheeks and salmon there, you can pretty much bet that you’ll get similar quality from them when you order seafood and have it shipped.

Read the Shipping Terms

Look beyond the pictures of succulent fish and shellfish and the recipes and ordering pages to find the market’s shipping terms. Look for a market that ships seafood daily – when you have seafood shipped, you want to work with someone who knows how to pack your order for shipping and understands the various things that can go wrong. Most fish markets that have online ordering also have a shipping policy that will tell you exactly when your order will be shipped and when to expect it. This is important information if you’re planning to buy lobster tails for a special dinner or counting on fresh halibut for a special event.

Follow the Instructions for Storage

Depending on how your seafood is shipped, you may be better off keeping it in the delivery container until you’re ready to prepare it or removing it from the packaging in placing it over ice in your refrigerator. The merchant will usually include instructions on storing your seafood until you’re ready to prepare it. Those instructions are your best guide.

If you’ve considered having seafood shipped for a special dinner or other occasion, there are many online markets where you can buy lobster tails, halibut, shrimp and other tasty delicacies. Make sure you choose one that offers only the best and freshest seafood to its customers.

Order Seafood in Season for Best Flavor

Thanks to seafood farming and high-speed worldwide transportation, you can generally get any type of seafood you want at any time of the year you want it. If you prefer wild-caught fish to farmed, though, there are distinct seasons when specific fish and seafood are much tastier and more readily available. If you’re going to order seafood online or have seafood shipped to you, it makes sense to get the best tasting selections available. If you’re going to order seafood in the winter, here’s a quick rundown of your best choices.

King Salmon

The King Salmon, also known as the Chinook salmon or the tyee salmon, is easily the most prized of all salmon – perhaps of all fish. The king salmon spends up to five years of its life swimming in the ocean before it returns to fresh water to spawn. Chinooks can grow up to 100 pounds, and have the highest amount of omega 3 fatty acids of all types of salmon. Wild-caught Alaskan king salmon are available for most of the winter – and all Alaskan king salmon is wild-caught. It’s illegal to farm king salmon in Alaska. It’s one of your best choices for winter seafood.

Halibut

Halibut is a mild-flavored, white fish with firm, succulent flesh. It’s one of the favorite fish on restaurant menus, and is rapidly becoming a favorite among home cooks as well. Alaskan halibut is in season from March to November, but is available fresh frozen the rest of the year. California halibut, also known as chicken halibut, Monterey halibut and hirame, is a different species than Alaskan halibut, but shares the mild flavor and succulent texture of its Alaskan cousin. When you buy halibut, ask how it is caught. Line caught or bottom trawl California halibut are considered a good alternative to wild-caught Alaskan halibut (also called Pacific halibut), but some California halibut are caught in set gillnets, which frequently catch other marine animals and seabirds.

Both king salmon and halibut are versatile – they’re equally good baked, broiled, grilled and pan-fried. Salmon and halibut are also among the most popular choices for sushi and sashimi.

If you decide to order seafood online, choose a fish market with a local presence and an excellent local reputation. You can have your seafood shipped overnight and enjoy it as fresh as if you were living next to the dock. Why serve anything but the best to your guests and family?

Delicious Lobster Tails When You Have Fresh Seafood Shipped

Lobster tails are among the tastiest delicacies on many restaurant menus, but frozen lobster tails from the supermarket often disappoint. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most important one is freshness. Like any seafood, the fresher your lobster tails are, the better they’ll taste. Fresh lobster tails have a finer texture and more flavor than those you buy in the supermarket.

Where to Buy Lobster Tails

If you don’t live close enough to the ocean to buy fresh lobster tails from a local fish market, you can order seafood online from a fish market and have your seafood shipped to you via overnight delivery. There are many online fish markets that offer a wide variety of fresh seafood, including lobster tails. The best online fish markets are those that also have an excellent reputation for selling fresh seafood locally. Be sure to choose a seafood market that ships seafood regularly. They understand the best practices and have an established routine and schedule to ensure that the seafood shipped by them stays fresh and sweet all the way to its destination.

Types of Lobster Tails

There are several types of lobster tails available on the market, but they break down into two main types – warm water lobster tails and cold water lobster tails. Most lobster tails come from spiny lobsters or rock lobsters, a clawless variety of lobster that has more tail meat than the typical Maine lobster. Most chefs recommend buying cold water lobster tails because they’re more likely to be fresh. Some report that up to 1/5^th of the warm water lobster tails they handle are “bad.” However, warm water lobster tails can be just as delicious as the cold water variety if they’ve been handled properly. That’s why you’ll most often find warm water lobster tails frozen.

When You Buy lobster Tails Online

A reputable online fish market will tell you whether you are buying tails from cold water or warm water lobsters. If it’s not clear from the website description, find another fish market to order seafood from. Also, look for any mention of sodium triphosphate in the website description, or call and ask the vendor if their lobster tails are soaked in sodium triphosphate. It’s a common method of preservation, but it can make the lobster meat mushy and unpleasant.

When your lobster tails arrive, look them over carefully. Look for any discoloration, dark spots, yellowing or grayish meats, all of which suggest poor handling and lobster meat that has started to go bad. If the tails are frozen, put them into the freezer immediately and keep them frozen until you’re ready to cook them. If they’re fresh, store them on ice until you’re ready to cook them and use them within a day or two.

Lobster tails are a sumptuous treat for a special occasion. Expect to pay premium prices when you buy lobster tails online, but be assured that the price is well worth the experience. Always order seafood from a reputable online fish market and you can be sure you’ll get high quality lobster tails that rival anything you can order in a top restaurant.

How to Buy Halibut Online

Halibut is one of the tastiest and healthiest fish available. The Pacific flatfish has sweet, slightly pink flesh that’s ideal for nearly any type of recipe, from sashimi to seafood chowder. Like any other seafood, halibut tastes best when it is fresh from the sea, but if you live away from the Pacific Coast, your options for buying fresh halibut can be limited. Online fish markets are one option that allow you to buy halibut that’s as fresh as if you were living on the sea coast. When you have fresh seafood shipped from an online fish market, your halibut and other seafood will arrive as fresh as if you’d gone down to the docks and picked out the catch of the day yourself.

How to Buy Halibut

When you order seafood online, you don’t have the option to pick out the pieces of fish or shellfish that you’ll take home to cook, so you have to count on the dealer to pick the best fish for you. Before you decide to do business with a particular online fish market, check with its reputation for selling high quality seafood. Social review sites like Yelp are a great resource for this type of resource. They can help you locate places to buy halibut that are actual fish markets that also sell online. A fish market that gets good reviews locally is also likely to make sure that the seafood your order online is the freshest and best available.

How to Check if Your Halibut is Fresh

When you have seafood shipped to your door, it will arrive in a sealed foam cooler, packed with ice packs to keep it chilled. When it arrives, open the package and examine your purchase carefully. Fresh halibut should smell sweet, not fishy or brine-y, and there should be no hint of vinegar smell to it. The flesh should be soft and moist, and have a consistent color. If it has oddly colored spots on it, or if the flesh looks or feels slimy, it has started to go bad.

How to Store Fresh Halibut

If you’re not planning to cook your halibut immediately, you’ll need to store it properly to ensure that it stays fresh until you’re ready to cook it. You can store fresh halibut in your refrigerator for up to two days by taking a few precautions. If the seller includes instructions for storage, follow them – often, you can store the halibut in the refrigerator in the foam case. If not, you can use this method recommended by seafood experts. Place the fish on a bed of ice and put it on the lowest shelf of your refrigerator. Replace the ice frequently as it melts so that the fish is always on a bed of ice.

When you order seafood online, you can buy halibut that is just as fresh as you can get when you live near the ocean. Do your research, find a good online fish market and treat your fresh halibut and seafood carefully when it arrives to take full advantage of the healthy benefits it provides.