Clams

Watched the food channel yesterday. There were a couple of programs about cooking clams. I know there are probably hundres of varieties. How about our local clam found in the lake. Any good to eat? How to eat? I'm sure anyone can get enought from the lake for whatever way they want to use them. Thanks for any answer.

[Losername1]

And your point ...? I felt it was still worth responding to. After all, it's still up here now isn't it ?

[Losername1]

I'm a local foodie who's grandma and mamma taught and I too had these clams in question. I've always had the ability to make some taste good that I e never attempted , so one fourth of July weekend at fountainbleau state park with the family ... Belle chassians lol , I decided to sautee , yeah I'm public schooled and sippin' on a hurricane , some of these " clams " in question. Figured some good ole Italian creole/charbroiled oyster style would make these puppies tasty, maybe with some fresh rouses French bread and real butter ... NOPE. No parmesan or butter or rosemary could get the muddy silty flavor out of em. If I would have stopped to think about the lack of menu items including these clams with them being so abundant I wouldn't have attempted but I usually can make s*#t happen but nit this time. Pretty clams ... Great smell... Bad muddy taste. Before I read this page all my friends would ask me about my clams that we are o so familiar about from our drive-ways, " how'd they taste?", ... "Like the ticfaw'". So I say we step up the bar for south Louisiana and try to come up with a scientific way to make these " bomb- shells" lol come out tastey. I figured with my method of rich , savory , and classic I'd be fail safe. NOPE. Good ol Terry Shelley's oysters it is for me. ( that's ma parrain's oysters in plaquemines parish. Winner of new orleans' oyster festival largest ouster first place and second. 9 inches y'all. Big as ya foot! First place people's choice oilfield book off crawfish competion in 2010.

[JazzyB]

FWIW, you are responding to a 7yr old post.

[collardman]

Well, the variety and quality of seafood in the lake has improved in the last 7 years. This post says don't think clams are in that number. I'll take his word.

We'll continue to send our crabs to the upper east coast and let them send their clams and mussels in return. Fair trade.

[Bill Hunt]

Good move.

The best clams that I have had along the LA/MS Coast were from an old Howard Johnson's in Biloxi, and they did NOT come form local sources.

I have tried to do local clams (various varieties) and have never been able to eat them.

As others in this old thread have speculated, bi-valves are filter-feeders, and while oysters abound, clams just do not seem to "get it right."

Hunt

PS - zombie threads can still prove useful to others, or interesting to some.

[hazelhurst]

Good God! The HoJo in Biloxi!

Salt water taffy... and those efforts of Pierre Franey to gussy things up and Make-A-Buck...what a boatload of memories you unleashed there.

[penthouse pup]

Hi there Hazelhurst,
I think you meant Jacques Pepin, who was HoJo's head "chef" for a while...

In the Lions club I'm called Wild Kelly because I cook anything wild. Ducks, rabbits, deer etc. As for the clams, stay far away from any lake, bay bayou, stream etc.. go to Grand Isle or the Mississippi Gulf coast. Wade out about 20 yards from shore. About knee deep. Get a little wet and dig up a couple of buckets of big clams. Place them in ice chest filled with sea water. When you get home, empty sea water add fresh water and box of salt. Purge about 5 minutes. Empty water add fresh water just to rinse. Remove clams. Make SURE clams are tightly closed. If not discard. DO NOT eat open clams. Now, open clams with knive place on half shell on bake pan or dish. Simmer some butter, lemom juice and garlic in a pan. Add enought bread crums to make a paste. Spread this paste on clams and bake for about 10 minutes or until paste is a crispy crust. Remove from heat, put on a little lemon juice and eat.Taste is good, but not great. Closest we are going to get to a clambake. Taste raw with lemon and horseradish is OK, but not to everyones loking. For resturants, forget it. Noe resturant I know of serve them.

Chowhounds, correct me if I'm wrong, but since Louisiana restaurants don't serve them, I guess we can assume they are not edible. I'll qualify "Louisiana restaurants" to mean those in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette. I used to feel bivavles underfoot in Lake Arthur. When you pull them up, they look kind of like clams. There are no restaurants in that part of the state that serve them either. I was told the ones in that lake were muscles, not clams. Maybe Casamento's, being the unofficial bivalve capital locally, would know. After some checking with the wetlands resources, I'll post back.

Though I haven't tried them personally, I hear they taste like mud due to the silt in area waters.

My quess would be the pollution factor. It is known that Louisiana Indians consumed large amounts of the clams common to the lake. However, after years of pollution problems with our estuarys, these clams have the real possibility of being polluted because of their type which is a freefilter type. Meaning they take in and digest and filter anything unlike most oysters. This is not bad in saltwater enviroments, but in brakkish waters can be a hazard. Just a quess.

The clams in question are rangia clams--the kind dredged out of Lake Pontchartrain for years, used as roadfill. This clam sustained the prehistoric native peoples of LA--they're plentiful and easily gathered from shallow water. BUT, they taste terrible. As kids, we used to scoop 'em up off of lake bottoms and dare each other to eat 'em. In a word, MUD.

I understand that Gulf clams and mussels taste that way except on the farthest fringes - the farthest areas from that muddy ol' Mississippi.

In the Northeast we eat clams all the time: cooked, broiled, and especially raw. Each region has it's own varietals and tastes.

I'm origianlly from Florida, parents from New York. I eat clams and mussels also. I don't think it's a question of taste, it's the the gulf waters close inshore are full of silt from the Mississippi and the clams and mussels are clogged with sand and fairly awful.