Monday, May 18, 2009

A Magical Way to Clean Clams


How do you like your clams? Grilled? Boiled? Raw? Sauteed? With a side of sand?

Bah, don't we hate it when it happens? I love my clams, but all the grinding actions from the sand could leave me toothless. Losing teeth over chocolate or candies might be fun, but losing 'em to sand is just not worth it.

During our BBQ session last weekend, I learnt..

A Magical Way to Clean Clams
When you learnt a useful tip, do you share the gospel? Or do you keep it to yourself and just laugh your pants off while the rest of us are munching on sandy clams? How fun it is to be the kind of person who chose the latter, but I believe in sharing (yes, I am not all about showin' off, there's also a good side of me hiding somewhere!).

It involves a spoon or a knife.
So, are we supposed to poke the clams with a dessert spoon or a knife and dig the grains of sand out? Is that possible?

Apparently not.

All we have to do is placing a spoon or a knife in the bucket/container where we wash the clams...

...clean the clam shells under the tap...

...and you're done! I didn't bite any single grain of sand and my teeth are all in tact!

What? How? Why? How come?
I've asked the very questions and the answer I got was "Dunno how, but it works".
That's the whole point, right?

Many thanks to Sir A who shared her mom's tips with us and many thanks to Amy who were washing the clams for us (You didn't think the beauty in the picture was me, did you? I am about twice her size).

Do you know the scientific explanation of this tip? Do share :)

10 comments:

Gummi Baby said...

Wow! I'm going to try this! I hate sandy clams! Does it work with mussels as well? He he!

Gummi Baby said...

Wow! I'm going to try this myself! I hate sandy clams. So does it work with mussels as well? He he!

Lidia Sianturi said...

hahaha...kerange mungkin wedi karo metal thingie..njuk teriak...aaaaaaaa....so mulutnya terbuka lebar n possibly most of the sand is out...
hahaha...just my unscientific explanation!

Roossy Tirta said...

it's interesting. Probably it is the same as putting a spoon in a pot while boiling red beans. My friend said, it would soften the bean faster.

Noob Cook said...

really!It sounds almost magical, and so fuss free. I heard that soaking in salt water helps too, but I think your method is even better. I must try ...

Indonesia Eats said...

I was thinking. It's probably the magnetic energy from the metal of spoons or knives.

Thanks for sharing, Rit

tigerfish said...

I wonder why too. But I know we can rub our fingers against stainless steel utensils after touching garlic. Is that related?

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Maybe the metal wants them to spit out all the sand?

Unknown said...

@lidia and wc LOL yes, maybe the clams felt threatened by the knife/spoon, so they spat out the sand hahaha

it's interesting how many other tips came out...i shall try the spoon while boiling red beans, soaking things in salt water and rubbing my hands on metal utensils, thanks for the tips, galssss :)

Ninette said...

We usually put a lot of black pepper in the water we leave the clams in after we've scrubbed them. Folklore is the pepper acts as an irritant and it lets them spit the sand out. Rinse the clams before cooking. We usually steam cleam open in just 1/2 a cup of wine (you just need enough to get the steaming process going) and the clams will exude their nectar and make more liquid. We serve the clams with the juice on the side. You dunk the clams in the juice to rinse off any possible sand and eat. Delish and no sand.