While the brand offers a plethora of mindfully designed, quality-built tools for prepping and serving seafood, the Coastal Kitchen Collection stands out as an especially versatile set for enjoying a wide spectrum of ocean harvests.
With tools including the Frogmore Shrimp Cleaner, Toadfish Crab Cutter, and Put ‘Em Back Oyster Knife, this very reasonably priced kit hits almost all the bases for seafood enthusiasts. The collection also benefits marine conservation through its Let’s Put ‘Em Back Project. More on that later.
But first, let’s meet these excellent tools for seafood preparation. A stellar kit for seafood buffs across the board, the Coastal Kitchen Collection boasts a versatile tool array, long-term durability, and an accessible price point. Awesome on their own and even better as a team, this handy set of tools is bound to both replace your current lineup as well as fill in any functionality blanks.
With a sleek, handsome design with a great weight and in-hand feel, the Frogmore Shrimp Cleaner is your fast-track tool for quick and easy shrimp prep. Engineered to efficiently peel, devein, and butterfly shrimp all in one single motion, this brilliant culinary tool puts the pro into processing shrimp.
The design is unique but simple — here’s how you use it:
- Insert the tool right below the top of the shell.
- Push the tool forward while sliding the shrimp upward toward the handle.
- The entire shrimp peel will be left on the Frogmore cleaner. And the peeled, deveined, and butterflied shrimp will be left in your hand.
- A quick rinse, and you’re done.
I brought the whole Coastal Kitchen Collection over to my friends at Surfside Seafood in Orleans, Mass., to check out and provide some professional feedback. The staff found an unexpected application for the Frogmore Shrimp Cleaner — splitting lobster tails!
While we were testing and discussing the tool set on a variety of ocean harvests, seafood maestro Barry Gruber grabbed the Shrimp Cleaner and picked up some freshly cooked lobster. Before I could explain that the tool was intended for shelling, deveining, and butterflying shrimp, he zipped open a lobster tail with the tool, more or less the same way you apply it for shrimp.
A Few Limitations
The tool does not work as well on smaller-sized shrimp. Keep this in mind if you’re typically cleaning tinier shrimp species. Essentially, the deveiner blade may take a bigger notch out of the shrimp than you’d like when processing smaller-sized specimens. I also found that the Frogmore Shrimp Cleaner does not work as well on frozen shrimp as on fresh. So, adjust your expectations if you’re pulling dinner out of the freezer.
For a detailed guide on how to use the Shrimp Cleaner, check out this helpful video on the Toadfish YouTube page.
Features
- Point blade peels, butterflies, and deveins shrimp
- Full-tang build ensures maximum strength and high integrity
- Stainless steel construction
- Comfortable, ergonomic handle built from recycled materials
The Crab Cutter is a simple yet brilliantly designed tool to access meat in crabs and lobsters. It’s strong, precise, comfortable to grasp, and attractive. The spring-action design and easy-open lock allow for seamless, smooth operation, while the rubber grips ensure you can stay focused on the task at hand rather than your grasp — even if you have literal butter-fingers.
I personally love the weight of the cutters and am confident in the longevity of the stainless steel construction. The tool will neatly access claw meat without splintering or chipping the shell.
Here on my native Cape Cod, we eat a lot of lobster, so I’ve mostly utilized the cutters for accessing claw meat and splitting tails. My buddies who lobster fish commercially also pull a decent amount of Jonah Crabs in their pots, so I’ve tried my hand with the tool on some smaller crustacean claws with great success as well.
Ergonomics
The precision serration really sets this tool apart from other cutters. This design minimizes the chipping of the claw shell, ensuring the meat stays fragment-free. With less hassle and prettier presentations, it’s a win-win.
The spring-action design and handle ergonomics also allow you to more precisely and incrementally apply pressure, so no more heavy-handed blowouts while trying to muscle through exoskeletons. And not to be ignored, I’m a fan of the integrated bottle opener.
For a detailed guide on how to use the Crab Cutter, check out this helpful video on the Toadfish YouTube page.
Features
- Precision serrated cutter
- Full stainless steel construction
- Nonslip rubber grips
- Spring-action design
- Easy-open lock
- Integrated bottle opener
As a native Cape Codder, where oysters reign supreme as the most regionally coveted and renowned ocean harvest, the Put ‘Em Back Oyster Knife is the star of the show for me.
I’ve been using the wonderfully ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing oyster knife for a few months. It is a stellar tool for almost every oyster size and shape I’ve tried. The knife feels durable and shows no signs of wear and tear after going through at least a few hundred oysters, so I’m confident it will remain a staple in my kitchen for years to come.
The angle of the bent blade tip is perfect to open oysters at the hinge as well as from the side of the shell. If you need to sneak in the side door and have the skills, this blade is up for it!
The sides of the blade tip furthermore have a nice edge for effectively and cleanly separating the oyster from the top shell, as well as cutting the slurp zone free from the bottom shell. My presentations are better than ever before!
Secure Handling
This oyster knife feels especially secure and safe in my hand while shucking compared to other oyster/clam knives I’ve wielded. The thumbprint handle improves the overall ergonomics and allows you to more mindfully apply just the right amount of pressure to the oyster without overexerting and slipping or pushing through the shellfish.
It’s a simple feature. But as someone who’s injured themselves shucking before and witnessed countless oyster-opening mishaps, I feel marginally safer shucking with this tool after a bit of practice.
While I consider myself a good, or maybe even a great shucker, depending on who you ask, I by no stretch consider myself a master of the craft. That being said, I brought the Put ‘Em Back Oyster Knife over to my pals at Elwood’s Raw Bar in Chatham, Mass., for an expert opinion — and they were impressed.
Business owner and big-league shucker David Eldredge had this to say after popping a few oysters open with the tool:
“Kudos to Toadfish for honing the sides of the blade tip — it’s crucial for separating the adductor muscle from the top shell and making cleaner presentations.”
— David Eldredge
David, along with his staff of savvy shuckers, agreed that the tool both feels great in hand and has a mindfully engineered blade design for opening a wide spectrum of size and shape oysters.
Favorite Knife?
The Elwoods staff already had a few Toadfish Pro Oyster Knives in the back kitchen that they were quite fond of. They were already quite familiar with the brand. When I asked the staff which knife they preferred between the two, I got mixed responses from the team. This confirms that every shucker has their own personal design preferences.
They also mentioned their knife preference was very influenced by the current batch of oysters in the shop. This further supported the fact that the perfect oyster knife is whichever one you personally wield best.
Features
- Japanese stainless steel, stain-free, rust-resistant blade
- Bent tip design
- Sharp edges on either side of the knife for efficiently cutting oysters from the shell
- Ergonomic thumbprint handle design for minimizing slippage and a safer shucking experience
- Blade-through design for increased durability, with 2.5mm Allen wrench adjustments to tighten as needed
- Multipurpose oyster knife great for shucking both raw and steamed oysters
Let’s Put ‘Em Back Project
As mentioned earlier in this article, all these products benefit ocean conservation through the Let’s Put ‘Em Back Project.
Since its inception, Toadfish has focused on improving our oceans, estuaries, and intercoastal waters through oyster flat restoration. Founded in 2016 at the Charleston, S.C., Farmer’s Market, the brand has gained considerable momentum, thanks in part to the Put ‘Em Back initiative to restore oyster populations across the coastal United States.
Remarkably, a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day, extracting the toxins from runoff and other inputs while simultaneously creating valuable habitat for countless species of fish, birds, invertebrates, and other wildlife. If there’s one ecological string you can pull on to generate far-reaching positive effects on coastal habitats in general, oysters are just that string.
So far, Toadfish has planted 280,214 square feet of oyster beds. And it’s growing, because 5% of Toadfish profits contribute to the Put ‘Em Back movement. If you do the math, its beds filter 82 million gallons of water and counting each day.
The brand has chosen to utilize oysters as its conservation champion because the brand views the coastal marshes and waterways of the low country as an especially critically important habitat, and for good reason.
Natural Filters
Acting as keystone ecosystems for both wildlife and humans, these coastal zones support biodiversity, aid in flood protection, serve as natural filters before runoff reaches coastal waters, and sequester carbon. Salt marsh habitats also have a profound effect on erosion control — the grasses and various species of vegetation both stabilize shorelines through their roots and trap and hold sediment.
Restoring oysters to these systems results in cleaner water, further amplifying the ability of these coastal ecosystems to do their thing.
Certainly not to be ignored, protecting and preserving our coastal marshes and ecosystems through oyster restoration also directly boosts opportunities for recreation. Healthy coastline and marsh habitats equal better fishing, hunting, paddling, and wildlife viewing. That’s something we can all get behind.
