A Clammy Dissention

[Carrot Top]

I just got a phone call from someone asking about using clams they had just dug (some large ones) for a chowder. He wanted to check his recipe with me and when he did there was one thing I do that he claims he never did (when he learned how to make clam chowder from the CIA which he has a degree from).

I told him to scrub the clams and to soak them overnight in salt water with a handful of cornmeal so that they would disgorge excess sand and grit.

He says that you don't have to do that. Instead he was taught to make clam stock without this process being done, then simply to leave the sandy grainy bits in the bottom of the stock pan when straining the stock for the chowder.

We'll see how his chowder turns out (he's making it now). I think he was using clams that already had been through this disgorging process at the purveyors they were purchased from when he was being taught this at the CIA and either was not told this needs to be done or maybe simply did not hear it. It seems to me that all the sand and grit will not come out with a simple simmer to make stock.

Any thoughts? Have I been babying my clams too much all these years?

Edited July 27, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

after digging clams I have always cooked a pot on the beach.. ..or even eaten them raw out of the shell right there as I am digging them... ..

when I steam them on the beach I sip the broth as well and if there was any grit left like he said it was at the bottom of the pot ...

so I am with him too much work and way too much waiting for me to purge fresh dug clams..

however.....I have purchased clams that were more gritty than any I have dug up ..I wonder if it has anything to do with location?

Edited July 28, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Carrot Top]

however.....I have purchased clams that were more gritty than any I have dug up ..I wonder if it has anything to do with location?

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"Location, location, location", huh, hummingbirdkiss?

Could be. I've had clams with extremely varied levels of grit, too, from both digging and buying.

In this case, though, the chowder he wanted to make was supposed to be not the most lovely idea of chowing down with friends who don't care too much if a piece of grit attacks them (which to my mind is the best scenario to be in for comfort and fun) but he wanted to impress the people he was making the chowder for with his cooking skills. As in, perfection displayed - no imperfections allowed.

In this case, I think all precautions need be taken to avoid any risk.

When I posted this last night, I was a little peeved for when he called me to ask how I made chowder (and what parts of the clams to use, even, the center part or the edges! ) while at the same time telling me he had passed a test on it at the Culinary Institute, he also became angry at me when I started off by saying "First you purge the clams".

"I call you for a recipe and now you're telling me I've got to do all this heavy sh*t!" was his loud angry comment.

I never really considered purging clams to be heavy sh*t, so I was rather thrown.

Oh. Yeah. This is who I used to be married to.

[hummingbirdkiss]

LOLOL people do that to me all the time ..I am a nurse and they will call and ask "blah blah hurts what should I do" then maybe I will tell them and then they give me a litany about how that could not possibly work!!!!

go figure huh? sometimes I wonder why they called in the first place?

I dont consider purging clams much work but I do consider waiting to eat them after I dig them an agonizing period of time ...

I just want an instant reward!!!

[Fugu]

As a child, we've always cooked clams from the ocean without purging, just as hummingbirdkiss does but when the clams come from mud ponds used in aquaculture, we clean out the guts. Clams feed on phytoplankton and phytoplankton from the ocean has a grassy flavour but freshwater phytoplankton has a muddy flavour.

As an apprentice, I was told by the French Chef to put the clams and mussels in the water and use a wooden paddle and roughly stir around. This is supposed to irritate the clams and expell the sand?

I've eaten raw Cherrystones and cooked Manila clams without going through these steps.