Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Cooking Soft-Shell clams?

4 views
Skip to first unread message

Frederick

unread,
Jan 6, 2012, 3:39:23 PM1/6/12
to
I really love soft-shell clams from Maine - I believe they are called
'Ipswich' and/or 'Manoe'.

Anyway, I would like to fry some. I have tried it, and have gone
through the exercise of shucking some - then breading and frying them.
They were great, despite the presence of this lousy cook.

But - I found the shucking process to be so tedious that I must be
doing something wrong, or unnecessarily hard. Or at least I hope so,
for I want to do this.

These clams have a black membranous material stuck to their snouts and
part of their body. I believe that it is called 'the beard' and maybe
the 'byssys', and that removing is called 'de-bearding'. Google shows
someone removing this stuff from mussels, but I don't think one would
do clams thataway. After all, the clam and his beard are hiding
inside his shell.

I find the clam's beard is pretty well stuck to him, and it took me
some few minutes per clam to get the clam to give it up. IOW, I
really found it hard to peel off the beard. It was so hard for me,
that I gave it up, and fried what I had - which were really great, as
I said earlier.

Anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks

Frederick
0 new messages