I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.

How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
with clams as well?

--
Donna
A pessimist believes all women are bad. An optimist hopes they are.

To reply, remove the SPAM BLOCK

On 12/04/2003 3:51 PM, in article
.net, "Donna Rose"
> opined:

> I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
> them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.
>
> How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
> soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
> remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
> something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
> with clams as well?

Cornmeal

Believe it or not, some friends of mine who regularly collect mussels on
shore swear by the musselmatic - they put the mussels in a mesh bag and run
them through a wash cycle in the washing machine. They say it takes the
beards right off.

--

Regards

Louis Cohen
Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8' 42.8"

"Donna Rose" > wrote in message
hlink.net...
> I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
> them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.
>
> How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
> soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
> remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
> something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
> with clams as well?
>
> --
> Donna
> A pessimist believes all women are bad. An optimist hopes they are.
>
> To reply, remove the SPAM BLOCK

On 12/04/2003 8:56 PM, in article leUzb.431980$Fm2.433479@attbi_s04, "Louis
Cohen" > opined:

> Believe it or not, some friends of mine who regularly collect mussels on
> shore swear by the musselmatic - they put the mussels in a mesh bag and run
> them through a wash cycle in the washing machine. They say it takes the
> beards right off.

I'm sure it does!

Reminds me of an episode on food tv about cooking Salmon in the dishwasher!

Donna Rose > wrote > I seem to
> remember something about oatmeal

Cornmeal.

The way they do it commercially is to hang the clams in a porous sack in
salt water. The clams will refresh the water in their shells and spit out
the sand. This takes 24 hours. I suppose you could just place them in a
bucket of salt water and get the same results.

Donna Rose wrote:
>
> I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
> them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.
>
> How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
> soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
> remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
> something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
> with clams as well?
>
> --
> Donna

Oatmeal is for land mollusks (snails)... But mom always used cornmeal
instead. :-)

For the sea critters, it's best to keep them alive and fasting for 2 or
3 days in salt water so that they can purge their systems of sand. A
large basin in the refrigerator with salt water and a battery driven
aerator worked for mom.

The other alternative is to gut them. The sand is primarily in the gills
and stomach.

We used to clam for pismo clams (a type of long neck) and mom would put
them in the crisper drawer in the 'frige for a couple of days in sea
water to let them purge.

The only sea mollusks we ever ate right away were Abalones. We used to
live on the west coast. :-)

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Custom handcrafts, Sterling silver beaded jewelry
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...s&userid=katra

On Thu, 04 Dec 2003 23:51:37 GMT, Donna Rose
> wrote:

>I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
>them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.
>
>How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
>soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
>remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
>something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
>with clams as well?

I usually buy farmed PEI mussels, rather than wild ones. That pretty
much avoids the problem. Littleneck clams I do get from the fishermen,
however.

For the clams I start the soup part of things and when it is about
four minutes from the end I zap the scrubbed clams in the microwave,
starting with 3 minutes for a dozen clams. If they are not all small a
few may need a little more time.

I take the clams out into a warm dish, and carefully spoon the clam
broth into the soup, leaving the dregs with any sand that is there. If
any clam looks gritty inside, I rinse it under a faucet.

When I have mixed in the clam broth and heated all to a simmer again,
I dish out the soup and put the clams in a nice circle in each bowl.

THis works fine doing dinner for two people. The zapping time gets
longer with larger batches.

It may be that only one or two of your mussels are gritty, and you may
be able to spot which ones if you look at them, but when they are
piled in the steaming pot it is hard to see.





Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


The sound of a Great Blue Heron's wingbeats going by your head

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I think in the interest of not
ruining my Christmas-eve seafood lasagna. I'll try a couple of batches
to see which of the suggested methods works best.

--
Donna
A pessimist believes all women are bad. An optimist hopes they are.

To reply, remove the SPAM BLOCK

Donna Rose > wrote:

> How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving?

Yet another repost:

Here is what Elizabeth David wrote in The Spectator in 1963 (republished
in her 'An Omelette and a Glass of Wine'.

<quote>
.... Henri Pellaprat, teaching chef at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris,
has an interesting theory. In _Le Poisson dans la Cuisine Française_
(Flammarion, 1954), he writes that most people go about the cleaning of
mussels in a way calculated to put sand into them rather than to
eliminate it; instead, he says, of first scraping them, one should begin
by rinsing them in a quantity of cold water, turning them over and over
and whirling them around. One by one you then take them out of the
water and put them in a colander. Half of them will be clean already;
those which are not must be scraped; as each is done, put in a bowl,
but, and this is the crux of the matter, _without water_. Only when all
are clean should water be run over the mussels; they should then be kept
on the move, the water being changed continually until it is perfectly
clear. The explanation given by Pellaprat for this routine is that, put
into still water all at once, the mussels start opening; when they close
up again, they have imprisoned within their shells the sand already in
suspension in the water. In other words, explains M. Pellaprat, the
more you keep the mussels moving, the more frightened they are; and the
less inclination they will have to open. Ah well, possibly. It is
worth paying attention to this theory, but it does mean that the mussels
must be prepared immediately before cooking, which is certainly
desirable, but not always practical.
</quote>

And here's what Patricia Wells writes in her 'Bistro Cooking':

<quote>
Tiny clams, in particular, tend to be very sandy. To degorge them, or
rid them of the sand, soak them for 1 to 2 hours in salt water,
dissolving 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces, or 117 g) coarse sea salt per quart
(liter) of water.
</quote>

Victor

On Thu, 04 Dec 2003 23:51:37 GMT, Donna Rose
> wrote:

>I bought a batch of mussels recently and made a fantastic wine broth for
>them. They were delicious, but they were a bit gritty.
>
>How does one assure that all the sand is removed prior to serving? Does
>soaking them in sal****er for any length of time help? I seem to
>remember something about oatmeal, but maybe I'm confusing this with
>something else. Anybody have any ideas? And, would the same method work
>with clams as well?

I suppose this method my Dad uses on Clams would work for Mussels too!
Just leave them in a bucket of the water they live in for twenty four
hours. During that time they will open and close their shells and
expell sand.

Regards,
Bill