Help! Whelks!

[chappie]

My in-laws have friends who fish channeled whelk somewhere off Ocean City or Assateague, Md., and they gave me a heaping bucket of the large, conch-like creatures today. They're currently slithering and bubbling in my car at about 40 degrees.

The plan is to extract the meats, process, vacuum seal and freeze to use in the annual chowder competition I participate in each February. This will be a big encore to last year's winning oyster/leek/vermouth batch.

I've read conflicting accounts on how to best prepare whelk. Some say to parboil in the shell for 15 minutes, others say freeze live, then thaw. For chowder I imagine I'll need to mince, chop or grind the meat, but is pounding necessary as in conch?

A friend also told me that conch, which must be anatomically similar, there are parts you discard and even a small part of the creature that's a delicacy.

So ... has anyone worked with whelk?

[Peter the eater]

I've no personal experience with whelks but I can tell you that they've been caught in pots along the St. Lawrence River for centuries, probably millennia. I've heard they're a lot like periwinkles, which I enjoy from time to time.

Here's a whelk recipe from Quebec. The author says:

The Whelk's foot is creamy-white, dotted with black specks and many consider it to be a meal of choice.

[CaptainJack]

The whelks we get here in Britain are very tough and hard to get on with. We make whelk spring rolls out of them and they seem to work pretty well. The whelk is very thinly sliced and stir fried with garlic ginger and finally sesame/soy. Then some juliene of carrots, onions etc and wrapped.

In general they can substitute squid where it is utilised thinly sliced and fried.

[Magictofu]

I've no personal experience with whelks but I can tell you that they've been caught in pots along the St. Lawrence River for centuries, probably millennia. I've heard they're a lot like periwinkles, which I enjoy from time to time.

Here's a whelk recipe from Quebec. The author says:

The Whelk's foot is creamy-white, dotted with black specks and many consider it to be a meal of choice.

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People do fish for whelks in the St. Lawrence Estuary.

Here's what I found on a French website:

"Grâce à son large orifice et son canal court, il est facile d'extraire le mollusque de sa coquille. Si vous pêchez le buccin, enlevez la glande digestive et ne conservez que le muscle pour plus de sécurité. C'est dans la glande que se logent les toxines, une particularité propre au buccin. "

In short, shells are easy to clean but you need to remove the "digestive gland" as it can contain some toxins. It is probably better to solely keep the foot.

And yes, these can be tough, but not necessarily in a bad way: think octopus.

[chappie]

My strategy is to parboil/kill in a big pot, cool, remove, get rid of the innards/glands, etc. Then chop meat, simmer gently til tender in lobster stock then vacuum seal to use in a mid-Feb. chowder.

Any problems with this approach?

[Magictofu]

My strategy is to parboil/kill in a big pot, cool, remove, get rid of the innards/glands, etc. Then chop meat, simmer gently til tender in lobster stock then vacuum seal to use in a mid-Feb. chowder.

Any problems with this approach?

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I guess it depends on what you mean by "tender". I think that they will remain chewy even after a long simmer. Otherwise, it seems quite sound.

Have you thought about experimenting with butter poaching a few of them to see if they get juicier? I don't know if that would work however.

[johnnyd]

Any problems with this approach?

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Nope!

People here in Maine pickle them. Gallon jars, full of pickled whelks, sit on small provision shop counters. Fifty cents each, I recall.

[chappie]

I am right now just putting all the innards in a bowl, but I don't want to discard them yet. Are any of them good to eat?

Also, the darkish outer part of the foot ... should I be slicing this off? I'm going to grind the meat before adding to chowder anyway, so does it matter if some of this stays on? It certainly doesn't peel off ...

[Peter the eater]

Chappie, any whelk photos to share? I haven't seen one prepped for human consumption since I was a kid visiting Gaspe, PQ in the 1970's.

Since you've started this topic, I've learned that they're quite popular in Prince Edward Island and parts of Cape Breton. In fact, I'm discovering an underground whelk fanaticism at the grassroots level.

Pickled whelks from Maine for 50 cents? I nominate johnnyd for a field report.

Do your whole cooked whelks look at all like these winkles?:

Typically, you steam them and pick the whole mollusk out with a pin while discarding the protective disk (operculum, or trap door). Eat like escargot -- the curly tip is the testis.

[chefadamg]

I've cooked quite a few welks from Long Island. They dont respond well to medium to long cooking. I used to flash them for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and cool in ice water...generally that would lead to a cold preparation. The flavor is quite nice..treat them like a chilled conch..they respond well to lime juice, olive oil and fresh herbs.

[chappie]

I'll try to upload some photos, but after a day spent parboiling whelks, cleaning them, chopping and simmering in lobster stock, I decided finally to grind them in the food processor for chowder/fritters.

I saved all the guts innards in a bag in the fridge, not sure if they're good eating or not. I had been told there's one part that is occasionally toxic. If they're good eating, maybe I'll dredge and fry some whelk guts.

Without grinding I just found them too tough, even the ones I sliced pretty much raw. Now, I didn't slice them paper-thin or marinate in lime juice, but that wouldn't be the chowder style anyway. They taste OK, but somewhat bland.

I now have (in addition to the guts bag and another of eye stalks and trimmings ... future bait? Stock?) A big covered bowl of ground whelk. I'll do a few tiny batches of sample chowders before deciding if this is what I want to enter with.

I could add some cod and call it the Whelcome Back Codder.

[Peter the eater]

I could add some cod and call it the Whelcome Back Codder.

. . . starring Gabe Capelin.

[Hest88]

Ah, brings back such lovely memories of whelks in Paris and Hong Kong. Yum.

[helenjp]

Removing dubious parts of whelk, refers to Japanese "tsubugai", but basically the same procedure.

[chappie]

I thawed a vaccuum-sealed bag of minced whelk from the batch above, and made a whelk/shrimp chowder as an experiment. It's tasty, but the whelks don't really seem to add much other than chewiness. I will cook with them, but I'm not sure I'll use them in my competition chowder.

[lemniscate]

On 1/6/2009 at 2:11 PM, johnnyd said:

Nope!

People here in Maine pickle them. Gallon jars, full of pickled whelks, sit on small provision shop counters. Fifty cents each, I recall.

 

Somehow I ended up with a can of Korean whelks.  Dunno, maybe I thought I was buying clams while on cold medicine, but wow, that was a shock to find in the pantry.  I decided to walk on the wildside and pickle them.  Here we go......................