How to Prepare Fresh Live Abalone for Sale at the Fish Market

One of the most delectable treats to come out of the California coast oceans is fresh live abalone. Many of the best chefs compare the sweet, tender meat to lobster and the very best diver scallops. Its texture is smooth and rich, almost velvety on the tongue. For some, part of the fun is in diving for your own dinner, but if you’re not a diver or live inland, you can nearly always find fresh abalone for sale at an online seafood market.

Many of the best seafood markets on the coast offer fresh abalone for sale in season alongside diver scallops, Dungeness crab, swordfish steaks and fresh salmon. Unlike the others, though, abalone – especially if you buy it live – will take a little extra preparation before you can enjoy it. Here’s how to shell and prepare abalone for cooking.

You will need an abalone iron or a bamboo spoon, a sharp, flexible knife, a pounder and a good cutting board.

Hold the abalone in your hand with the shell down and the flat side toward you. Slide the abalone iron under the foot on the flat side of the shell and scrape it loose from the shell.

Slide your fingers along the rim from front to back to release the abalone’s guts, then cut them off in one piece by cutting from the back and moving toward the head. Cut carefully all the way around the top of the foot and try to avoid cutting into the gut.

When you reach the head, cut into the meat slightly so that you can remove the head and gut both together. Now you have the abalone meat still attached to the foot with a thin layer of black film along its side. Scrub or cut this away. If you cut, keep the cuts very shallow to preserve as much abalone meat as you can.

Cut off the edges along the sides and the foot and remove the thick, tough, pointed end of the abalone. Your abalone is now ready to slice and tenderize before cooking.

The recipe you’re following should tell you how to slice the abalone meat. If you’re going with the simplest preparation – pan-fried or grilled abalone steaks –simply slice the abalone meat into ¼” to ½” thick slices. Lay each slice out flat on a cutting board and pound the edges and the toughest parts of the meat with a meat tenderizer.

Dip the slices in egg and breadcrumbs, then fry each slice in a very hot pan for about 30 to 40 seconds per side. Flip onto a plate and serve.

If that sounds like an awful lot of work, check to see if the online seafood market has abalone for sale as steaks or filets, or even cleaned fresh abalone for sale. It will cut out the cleaning and you can start with the fun part – seasoning and cooking.