Life is about experiences

[minoanmiss]

So it's been too hot to cook. In other news I love raw oysters and clams. I like clams better, actually, because they are meatier -- oysters are kind of semisolid. Last time I had them in a restaraunt I got somewhat ill (ahahahahahah ugh) so I thought, why not try this at home?

I mixed up some salt water with distilled water (distilled water is fortunately sterile), submerged some hardshell clams for a few refrigerated hours, and then sat down with the (heavy) pot of clams, a beer, an old soft kitchen towel, and an oyster knife. I found that the side of the hinge was a good place to attack, with steady pressure, on a clam wrapped in a kitchen towel -- I used my hand to hold it upright rather than to hold it, so my hand wasn't in direct line of the knife.

I felt like I was earning my meal! I fought each clam in mortal battle until it yielded its deliciousness to me. Woot woot!

I got through eight before my hand hurt too much. ahahahahaha. But it was an excellent experience and I'll definitely try again.

(I threw the rest into a pot with some leafy greens and cooked till they opened, ate the greens, ate a lot of bread with it all, and have the cooked clams waiting for me in the fridge)

Comments

[amaebi]

Brava! Brava!

[sovay]

I felt like I was earning my meal! I fought each clam in mortal battle until it yielded its deliciousness to me. Woot woot!

That sounds excellent.

(I like oysters a lot, but I have the fortune never to have been made ill by them, jeez.)

[full_metal_ox]

There’s a certain primal satisfaction in wresting your food from its natural structure, isn’t there.

[minoanmiss]

Primal satisfaction was right. I felt like I was channeling my ancestors who used hand-carved or hand-knapped knives for the same purpose and laughed in triumph as they wedged open each recalcitrant bivalve.

[full_metal_ox]

You might be interested in a Navajo poet’s account of having been called in by some Tiwas to butcher a buffalo:

https://radiantfracture.dreamwidth.org/310500.html

[minoanmiss]

oh my wow that was gorgeous. Thank you.

[flamingsword]

That sounds kinda fun, so long as you’re using proper knife safety. I would, of course, probably die of self-inflicted idiocy.

[minoanmiss]

Enh, there are nice people who have posted videos online about how to shuck shellfish. I've watched a couple.

[acelightning73]

If you saved the water from the clams, you have "clam juice", which can be added to any kind of seafood mixture you've got to give it more of a "seafood" flavor. And you've been in New England long enough to avoid adding any tomato product to clam chowder.

[full_metal_ox]

Not to mention that you can use the clam juice in or as the cooking water for grain or pasta.

[minoanmiss]

Well, true, but I had a lot of fun drinking it.

[acelightning73]

I hope it had a lot of white wine in it :)

[lunabee34]

I love raw oysters. I grew up eating them; we'd all stand in a line at the kitchen counter with dad shucking, and go back to the end of the line when we'd had ours, with dad shucking one for himself at the end of each round. I've only had raw clams at sushi restaurants, but also super yummy.