# Clams Q re: shucking & cleaning



## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

Hello all:

We've mastered the crabbing and the manila clams. We're getting a bit better with the salmon fishing, but we're still needing some assistance with the larger clams.

I'm hoping someone has some experience with cleaning butter clams. I checked the internet, watched youtube videos and read forums. I did everything correctly (I thought). 

Keep them cold, keep them in their seawater, then put them in salt water I made so that they could clean/spit out the sand. The articles I read said they could sit in that salt water for anywhere from 1 hour to overnight. You take them out, shuck them and then continue the preparations. 

I did all of the above, but when I took them out of the salt water I had made with tap water and kosher salt, the clams were covered in a clear slime. The water was permeated with the slime. The clams all had their siphons out and most were open a wee bit. When we shucked them, they did not appear to be alive any longer. 

When I made the salt water, I used warm tap water to get the salt to dissolve. 

Does anyone know:
1. Did I kill them due to the tap water (cholorine) or the warmth?
2. Were they still okay to eat? We didn't want to chance it and we threw them out and I'm just sick about it.
3. Does anyone know why they slimed and if it is normal? 

Again, I've spent about 2 hours researching this to no avail. I can't find any info on clams and slime. 

Thank you for any help you can give!


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## kenworth (Feb 12, 2011)

Is there a US or state sponsored seafood board you can get ahold of? 

IMHO I would think if it is caught in your state then they should have some info. 

Did you search the Food Network, and the likes? 

Sorry about your clams, all your hard work for naught.

Hope you get some answers, and let us know what you find out to educate the rest of us, please.

BTW, how were you going to preserve them, out of curiosity?


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## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

This happened last night Ken and I couldn't get ahold of the state on a Sunday night...I did try their website to no avail. I did search several foodie websites and did searches in many different ways. I've also sent out an email to all my Washington friends hoping someone can tell me about the slime. 

And YES, it was hard work!

I was going to freeze them in their juice for use this winter in clam chowder. I didn't really have enough to do a proper canning job.


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## Island of Blueb (Sep 20, 2005)

You can just split the stomach bag open and scrape out the soft stuff. 

I always keep them in seawater but not longer than a day. This is just until I have time to take care of them. Not the "cleaning themselves out" issue.

I have never had them live in faucet water.

HTH, JMHO.


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

OK.

Right, of the bat, I read you used WARM TAP WATER.

Let's look at how your tap water gets warm.

Cold water enters your WATER HEATER, and it gets heated by gas, electric, whatever. The water boils. Those bubble you see when you boil water, is the oxygen and other dissolves gasses that were in solution. The heat makes the oxygen and gasses expand and they bubble out.

The water then runs up your plumbing to your sink tap. It cools down a bit, but you have it warm to help disolve the salt.

Now you have dead, water with no oxygen content saturated with kosher salt.

Basically, you suffocated the clams and killed them.

Next time, just used cold tap water and stir in the salt.

It was probably a good idea to toss dead clams and not eat them.

The slimes was probably a release of bodily fluids at death.

Some folks aerate water before using in aquariums. That could help too.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

In our experience, clams are slimy. Think of slugs with shells (if that doesn't make you not want to eat them). When we let them sit in clean ocean water to "clean out" and to wait for us to get home and process them, they will slime. We just wash it off, no problem.
I'm usually lazy: after being out on the water all day with several children, my mom and my kids, I just stick the clams & mussels in the freezer whole in their shells. I don't have to force the shells open when they thaw, and can clean them at that time. People eat the stomach contents in small clams, oysters and mussels anyway, so freezing it has never bothered us. 
My daughter came up with the idea of smoked clams: putting whole, live clams in the smoker, then making them into soup, canning or freezing when they open and get that nice smokey flavor. With hot smoking they'd be fully cooked.
Kit


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

If I remember right, Mom's Lobsters didn't fare well in the bathtub with city water. But... we got to play with them for awhile.


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## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

Okay, so the concensus was that I killed them with the tap water. They slimed up but that is not necessarily bad. It's easiest to freeze first then shuck when time allows but smoking live is great. I can get more meat by scraping the stomachs. And watch little fingers if letting the kids play in the bathtub with them.  

Thank you everyone! We'll try again this weekend!!


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