Mussels

Tom Dunne

As you may know, I live abroad. Today, I saw in the freezer of the local supermarket Irish mussels in garlic/cream sauce. They are long since consumed with a nice Chablis and my own brown bread. Utterly gorgeous.

Anyway, when I cooked fresh mussels at home in Ireland, it was always the done thing to throw away the ones that did not open, no problem there.

However, there were two warnings on the (frozen) box of mussels stating the same thing - throw away any that do not open.

Now, I'm asking this from an, em, physical perspective as opposed to a food safety perspective. I always thought that if they don't open, they are dead and therefore not best to eat. But if they are frozen surely they are dead anyway and opening is due to something else?

So why the warning to throw away the ones that don't open on frozen mussels?

The Hill Billy

Were they vacuum-packed? If so, they should all have been open after initial cooking but before being packed. Vacuum-packing would have forced some of them closed again.

I'd imagine that the warning is in place to catch any dead ones that they missed before packing.

duploelabs

The Mussels that don't open after cooking and therefore shouldn't be opened is a myth, they don't open as they're normally full os sand and then if you do all the sand will fall out and contaminate your dish

Tom Dunne

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Were they vacuum-packed? If so, they should all have been open after initial cooking but before being packed. Vacuum-packing would have forced some of them closed again.

I'd imagine that the warning is in place to catch any dead ones that they missed before packing.

Yes, they were vacuum packed.

The effects of the Chablis precluded me from noticing whether they were open or closed prior to cooking.

I'll make sure next time I buy them I'll check.