[El Corazon]

Did a little clamming this afternoon and got some nice Pismos. A friend said to let them soak in a milk/beer combination overnight to purge the sand. I found little on the internet to tell me if there is a specific way to prep these beasts.

Are Pismos appropiate for a clam bake whole or should they be shucked and meat separated from the guts before cooking?


Cheers,

David Brandt
25' Grady White w/twin 200 Hondas
"EL Corazon"

"A tequila a day keeps the Prozac at bay"

Previously ... "Loca Loba" and the original "Cabin Boy"

 

[JSea]

Milk and Beer is good.
I've always steamed them, that's me though.

John.
Parker 2320 'FloMar'.

 

[El Corazon]

Hi John,

Yea, I always have steamed my clams but I have never dealt with clams this large ... freakin huge and I had never heard of this milk/beer thing.


Cheers,

David Brandt
25' Grady White w/twin 200 Hondas
"EL Corazon"

"A tequila a day keeps the Prozac at bay"

Previously ... "Loca Loba" and the original "Cabin Boy"

 

[stambob]

Some people put them in a bucket of clean ocean water and add some corn flakes and overnite they supposedly purge the black stuff. What i do is rinse them with fresh water, let them sit until they open enough to get a knife into them and cut the abductor muscles, scrape the meat out of the shells, saving the clam juice, and then remove the black stuff by cutting it out with a knife, then chop up the meat and use it for chowder. Being so large, the're kind of tough steamed, unless you'r very careful not to overcook even a little bit. But my favorite is clams casino, where you prefry some bacon,put some of the chopped meat in the shells,add a little of the clam juice,lay on a couple slices of velvetta cheese and some short bacon pieces and bake it at about 300 degrees until the cheese melts and the bacon starts to sizzle and eat it out of the shell. A toaster oven works great for this. Its goooood. I forgot to mention that after cutting the muscles and draining the juice, rinse the meat thoroughly to remove the sand.

 

[Clipper23]

Steaming the jumbo clams is pretty tough, plus the volume of unwanted far outweighs the amount we normally suck down in a steamer. Seperate the clam then, simply, scrape all the unwanted ( it is easy the junk is soft and the "goods are tough") and discard. Now a few ideas-
Ceviche- Clams make some of the best ceviche, if you are skeched about purely raw clams, drop the meat in boiling (salted) water for 30 seconds, remove, cool them proceed.
Italiano- Blanch the clam strips (stated above), alittle balsamic vinegar, sliced red onion, garlic, good olives, flat leaf parsely and a grilled baguette.
Korean style- once again blanch the clams then chill, dip them in Sambal chili with a few drops of sesame oil, followed by a drink of OB beer and a shot of Soju. Guaranteed to lift your libido!
Loreto style- clean clams but reserve the shells. Melt a cube of butter then add a healthy amount of garlic, scallions, pepper (no salt, the butter and clams should be salty enough). Return cleaned, strips of clams to shell then add 1tbs of butter mixture, top with shredded parm. Cheese. Broil until cheese is GBD (golden, brown and delicious).
Now, you are rockin'

To deep fry them is a waste of fresh delicate flavor
Those are just some ideas, feel free to email me about any other ways to enjoy seafood.

 

[Hot Rail]

I like BBQing clams. Place them on a grill and eat em as soon as they open up. Add butter and garlic.

 

[SWEET MARISSA]

Dave, we used to tenderize them with a meat mallet dip them in egg and your choice of bread crumbs.(Fried)

 

[Latitudes]

>Hi John,
>
>I have never dealt with clams this large ... >
>

Just curious, is there any pics so I can see what these "large clams" look like? My mouth drools just thinking about it.

I remembered I bought some large size (about the size of adult's palm) cherry clam when I visited Encinata years back, we've tried to bake, steam, BBQ, all came out with tuff meat. I ended up cut open the clam, get the meat out, and give the meat a quick dip in boiling water for about 30 seconds, man that was good...

Thank you.

Ming