water as muscle.
Crustacean Color Crustacean shells and eggs
provide some of the table’s most vivid colors.
They are generally a dark green-blue-red-
brown that helps them blend in with the sea
bottom, but turn a bright orange-red when
cooked. The animals create their protective
coloration by attaching bright carotenoid
pigments derived from their planktonic diet
(astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, beta-carotene and
others) to protein molecules, thus muting and
altering their color. Cooking denatures the
proteins and frees the carotenoids to reveal
their own true colors.
The shells of lobsters, crayfish, and some
crabs are often cooked to extract both flavor
and color for sauces (the French sauce
Nantua), soups, and aspics. Because
carotenoid pigments are much more soluble in
fat than in water, more color will be extracted
if the cooking liquid is mainly fat or oil —