Corn Meal & Mussels??

[Jock]

So this recipe says to soak mussels in water for an hour with a 1/4 cup of corn meal added. You throw the lot out before cooking the mussels.
What would the corn meal do? Any ideas? Thanks

Jock

[cape chef]

Hey there Jock, This works for some bivalves. I do not do this with mussels, Mussels do not live in the sand, they cluster themselves in the moving currents above the sand. So besides the beard to pluck..you should have clean mussels. On the other hand "steamers" burough deep in the muck close to shore. They take in the nutrients from the ocean bed, with that they take in sand. the corn meal soaking will tease the steamers into eating the meal and pooping out there grit. No kidding!!
cc

[Anneke]

In the "old days" this was a common practice in Belgium. Except it was regular flour instead of cornmeal. It made them puff up and kept them pale, which was considered a desirable quality at the time.

[cape chef]

Thank you Anneke, I never knew that
cc

[Jock]

That's fascinating. Thanks so much. I love little gems of information like that. (It's why I'm so good at "armchair" Jeopardy.)

Jock

[momoreg]

OMG!!!!
I am both appalled and amazed that you know such things, CC!!!

Gross!

Nice little tidbit, though.

[chrose]

I find that putting them in the dishwasher does wonders. If you don't drain them afterwards you have a lovely nage!

[Suzanne]

If you wrap them really well in foil and put them on your manifold, how far to you have to drive until they're done?

[Peachcreek]

Suzanne are you talking Car-B-Que?

[Suzanne]

Yup -- although for me it's all hypothetical, I don't own a car.

[shroomgirl]

I once asked an Italian who owns one of the top rated Italian restaurants in the USA if he makes polenta from the cornmeal ingested by the clams.....he didn't think it was funny, I was semi-serious.

[Pete]

Suzanne, I once had a cookbook written for cooking on top of your manifold in your car. Someone gave it to me as a joke and I have long since passed it one to someone else, though there are times that I kick myself for doing so. I think the book was called "Manifold Destiny" if I remember correctly.

[Athenaeus]

Oh yes. We do that in Crete with snails but we use flour instead.
It "cleans" them.We pick snails after rain. After all the snow we had and all the rains we finally had some snails. I picked-up a whole basket last week, so I proceed to feeding them with flour for 3 days before cooking them. But if you do this use a basket and not a casserole...
I had no idea that they do that with mussels too...

What is Car-B Que?

[chrose]

Originally posted by Suzanne
If you wrap them really well in foil and put them on your manifold, how far to you have to drive until they're done?

Suzanne if only it were that easy. You see, if you're driving in the winter in essence you are braising because the top of the hood is cold and the air is constantly cooling the top. If it's the summer though you are gettting the sun baking the top of the hood so you are in effect roasting. Bearing that in mind if it's summer, by the time you get to the 7-11 you should be able to picnic in the parking lot with your beer. Winter time I would say you could get back from the bakery with your baguette and have a lovely stew.

You actually shocked me with that question at first. I wrote a query one time to a food mag. and used cooking on your cars engine for a humorous hook to catch the editors attention on an article I wanted to write on cooking en papillotte. She thought I seriously wanted to write about cooking on your cars engine and turned me down! I learned that day I could be too clever for my own good!
I thought you had seen that query when I first read your post

[Suzanne]

Chrose and Pete, I've never actually seen Manifold Destiny, but I'm a devoted listener to Click and Clack, The Car Guys. They recently rebroadcast the segment when "That Martha Lady" was on with them, and she mentioned that you should never use aluminum foil like that. Something about Alzheimer's, but I forget .... In any case, maybe the answer is to do a real parchment en papillote and then wrap that in foil. But as I said, I have no car, so I had no idea it could be so complicated. Different in different parts of the US, and different countries, too, I guess.