Doing a unit on fish and seafood can be expensive. However, I had the privileged of working at a high school with a fish market adjacent to the school. We took a walking field trip to the fish market for a demonstration of how to select and cook fish. This was an awesome opportunity for students and helped mitigate the costs to the culinary department. 

Objective

• 8.5.5 Prepare various meats, seafood, and poultry using safe handling and professional preparation techniques.

Set

• Ask students to talk about which types of fish they have eaten and which ones they like and why.

Materials

• Fillet knife

Instructions

When butchering fish, there are really only three different ways to cut:

• “up and over” (used for cutting fish with hard bones, it involves cutting along and then next to the backbone and then over the rib cage)
• “straight cut” (used for cutting fish with soft bones, it involves cutting through the pin bones and through the rib cage which is removed afterwards)
• “flat cut” (used for cutting flat fish, you cut down the backbone and then over the other bones in a flat motion).

If you are comfortable with those cutting methods you can cut almost any fish, but what is difficult is how delicate the flesh is.

Labs

• Basic broiled fish
• Grilled Salmon

Activities

• Day 1: Guest Speaker from local fish market or Whole Foods
  • Explain the classification of fish and shellfish.
  • Show how to select fresh fish and shellfish.
  • Explain how to handle and store fresh fish and shellfish.
  • Eviscerate, clean, skin, and fillet fish.
  • Prepare a variety of fish cuts.
  • Clean and prepare shellfish for cooking.
• Day 2: Basic broiled fish lab (demo if you can’t afford to have whole class make it)
• Day 3: Grilled Salmon lab (demo if you can’t afford to have whole class make it)

Projects 

• Controversies in Fish (Farmed vs. Wild Caught)
  • Have students answer the question, “Which is better for you: farm raised or wild caught fish?” You can have them answer this question in the form of a presentation, poster, paper, etc.
  • Have students work on this project as time allows on days 1,2,3 above.

Videos

Works Cited

• CIA Blog

Similar Lessons

• Meat and Fish Unit