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Cincinnati Help?


liuzhou

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13 hours ago, MetsFan5 said:

I cooked 3 dozen little necks last night. I stored them in my refrigerator, with a cold, damp paper towel covering them. It was hours before I grilled them later and every single one opened up. None died. I’ve been doing that a lot this summer with very limited casualties. I also soak them for about 20 minutes in cold, salted water before cooking to help them express any remaining sand. 

The classic method as everyone growing up on Long Island learned. Or maybe even growing up in Jersey.

 

@liuzhou - are those clams fresh or salt water clams? Because here, in Chinatown, I never see hard-shell clams (e.g. little necks, cherry stones, top necks) stored in water, but rather on ice. I think on the rare occasion when I have seen water, it's running, so they're not actually submerged in it.

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On 9/10/2020 at 6:44 PM, weinoo said:

The classic method as everyone growing up on Long Island learned. Or maybe even growing up in Jersey.

 

@liuzhou - are those clams fresh or salt water clams? Because here, in Chinatown, I never see hard-shell clams (e.g. little necks, cherry stones, top necks) stored in water, but rather on ice. I think on the rare occasion when I have seen water, it's running, so they're not actually submerged in it.

 

They are saltwater clams from Beihai near the Tonkin Gulf on the border with China and Vietnam. The second image in the relevant recipe shows them in the market. The water is usually running but although the water is shallow they are submerged.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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I was out and about yesterday, so decided to satisfy my own (and perhaps others') curiousity about the clams. As I said they are saltwater clams from the Tonkin Gulf. All supermarkets and market stalls hold them in running water. As you can see, they are submerged.

 

The water is what I would describe as lightly salted - certainly not seawater salty.

 

20200911_153636.jpg

 

(The sign requests that you don't use the water to wash your hands!)

 

The supermarket staff were, as usual, clueless, but I did enquire in the market and was told by different traders that the clams will survive happily in fresh water for two to three hours. This bears out my own experience. In fact, I've held them in fresh water for longer than that.

 

Information turned up by Google is very mixed, but a few sites concur that fresh water isn't going to do any damage in the short term

 

I hope that clarifies things, slightly.

 

20200911_153646.thumb.jpg.ef46e488447f6554821c7e61527ede9a.jpg

 

 

Edited by liuzhou
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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@liuzhou Thanks! I've been following along wondering about this. It makes sense that they can stay in fresh water for a while - in the US it's common for sources to say to never do it, but I think (just my opinion) this is because municipal water here can be quite heavily chlorinated, depending on location. The chlorinated water would probably kill them much faster.

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Liuzhou, I have been exploring eastern ingredients and techniques for the past few years, and even at a quick glace have picked up a few helpful tips from what you have posted here.  I think that this will be a good tool to hone people's interest, and perhaps persuade them to explore further.  Thank you for sharing it!

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I don’t mess with tap water in general. I wonder about the salinity difference between the Atlantic Ocean  off Long Island and the salinity in Tonkin Bay. 

  Those clams look gorgeous but not similar to Little necks except maybe in size, it’s hard to tell. 
 

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I suppose there's another thing to consider: buying habits are pretty different in China if compared to the USA or Europe. From what I understand people in China buy their food fresh everyday, they buy what they need for that day and stop. So their storage requirements are pretty different than American or European people. Chinese people are going to cook what they buy immediately or after few hours at worst. American and European people are going to store it for days. Seems hard that a Chinese person is going to buy clams and asking himself/herself how those clams are going to stay alive till the next day.

 

 

 

Teo

 

Teo

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10 minutes ago, teonzo said:

I suppose there's another thing to consider: buying habits are pretty different in China if compared to the USA or Europe. From what I understand people in China buy their food fresh everyday, they buy what they need for that day and stop. So their storage requirements are pretty different than American or European people. Chinese people are going to cook what they buy immediately or after few hours at worst. American and European people are going to store it for days. Seems hard that a Chinese person is going to buy clams and asking himself/herself how those clams are going to stay alive till the next day.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

Yes, that is a consideration, but not the only one.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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