Weird mussel experience

[haresfur]

So am I out to lunch / was I out of line?

 

I ordered linguine marinara in a nice brew pub that shall remain nameless except to note it is in a small agricultural city and is owned by a well known food personality.

 

The waitress made a nice show of bringing a bowl for the shells and a finger-bowl.  The dish came with a pile of mussel shells on top - all of which were empty.  Ok, one had an under-size mussel in it, which fell out when I picked it up.  So I asked the waitress what gives?  She checked with the kitchen and came back to explain that the mussels were cooked in with the rest of the dish and fell out when the shells opened.  I thought ??? and suggested that it was a bit silly to pile up the empty shells for me to deal with.  And besides I couldn't really see any obvious mussels in the dish.  (ok as I ate my way down, I found a few of the small mussels hiding).  The head waiter came by and gave the same explanation.  I said, "Thanks, no worries".

 

But really?  Mussel shells about  5 cm long with 2 cm long mussels that don't stay in their shells because they don't seem to have, well muscles, are outside my experience. Then the cook fishes the shells out of the dish and perches them nicely on top as garnish. Am I missing something?

 

On the plus side, they brought out some more mussels and comped me a pot of beer.  And the linguine were cooked absolutely perfectly.

[MelissaH]

I certainly don't think you're missing something, except maybe some mussel meat. I've never heard of mussels all falling out of their shells. And piling up the empty shells seems beyond ludicrous to me.

 

Then again, I've only ever eaten mussels in North America and Europe, not in your part of the world, so my regional bias might be showing!

[rlibkind]

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and day it's a one- time screw up, if only because of the comp make- up. But if I went there again and there was a second screw- up, no matter the dish , I wouldn't go a third time ,

Now. If the mussels were billed as out of the shell in the first place to save the diner the trouble...

[djyee100]

The empty shells, the small size of the mussels--it sounds like the mussels were overcooked. In general, mussels will shrink and fall off the shell when overcooked. Were the small mussels tough or rubbery?

 

Mussels should cooked only until they open. When I cook mussels, I remove them from the stove at that point, even if the flesh looks somewhat raw. Residual heat from the sauce or pan will complete the cooking. If someone has overcrowded the pan, though, some mussels will be overcooked before others are cooked at all.

[Anna N]

I have recently found the mussels I buy are extremely small in what appear to be normal size shells. I know for certain they are not over cook. Asked about this recently on eG and was told it had to do with their reproductive cycle.

[Martin Fisher]

Empty shells as a garnish?

Were they drunk?

[djyee100]

I have recently found the mussels I buy are extremely small in what appear to be normal size shells. I know for certain they are not over cook. Asked about this recently on eG and was told it had to do with their reproductive cycle.

 

??? And were the mussels falling out of their shells when cooked?

 

In the northern hemisphere, it's the natural spawning season for mussels. But in Australia, it's winter. I would expect mussels to be at their peak now.

[Anna N]

??? And were the mussels falling out of their shells when cooked?

 

In the northern hemisphere, it's the natural spawning season for mussels. But in Australia, it's winter. I would expect mussels to be at their peak now.

Almost always whether at home or in a restaurant when I have mussels there are a few that come out of their shells. Sorry, I obviously didn't study the mating habits of mussels in the antipodes. I was simply sharing an observation countering the argument that because they were small they were necessarily over cooked.

[haresfur]

Thanks for the responses.  I'm learning something.

 

The mussels were cooked a bit more than I do, but they weren't rubber. I didn't know about the life cycle thing. Perhaps they don't hold on as strongly at that stage.  I have been blessed the past few months with a vendor at our farmers market bringing in fresh mussels (they are farmed, afterall) and they have been large with strong attachment to the shell.  But this restaurant could well have had their source over in South Australia, given their location.  So the seasonality could be quite different. And I'm far from expert on cooking them (although this could be a topic for a different forum).

 

If they hadn't done the shell thing, I probably wouldn't have thought twice. So I don't really have any complaints except it was a bit too spicy for my taste - hides the seafood flavour too much. And I was happy with the service and happy to tip them to be sure they knew that.

[pastrygirl]

Did it seem like there were more shells than mussels?  I would have assumed that the cook prepared a serving of mussels in a pan and poured the contents of the pan into the dish.  Small stuff and sauce would fall to the bottom, leaving the shells on top.  It does seem unusual that so many shells were empty, but aside from that, do you have other reasons to feel something screwy was going on in the kitchen?

[haresfur]

Did it seem like there were more shells than mussels?  I would have assumed that the cook prepared a serving of mussels in a pan and poured the contents of the pan into the dish.  Small stuff and sauce would fall to the bottom, leaving the shells on top.  It does seem unusual that so many shells were empty, but aside from that, do you have other reasons to feel something screwy was going on in the kitchen?

 

I didn't count so maybe there were as many mussels as shells.  I did think it was weird that they fell out because whenever I have cooked mussels they stay pretty firmly attached. That and they appeared undersized for the shells, but as pointed out above, that might be a life-cycle thing that I was unaware of.

[haresfur]

I forgot to update that I asked my mussel man and he did suggest the life cycle factor but said he works around it by having a number of locations.  He also turned up his nose at South Australia mussels, saying their water is too warm.

 

Now if I can ever make a broth as good as I remember from when I first tried mussels at age 7 in Italy...