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Your clams might be dead. They are marine animals, so storage on ice might not be great for their health. It could also be a problem with how you transport or store the clams at home, or when you ...
Answer
#2: Post edited
by
Jordan
·
2020-12-16T02:54:35Z (about 4 years ago)
Clarified that "It could also be a problem with..." was not distinct from the clam death hypothesis, but rather an elaboration on the possible mechanisms by which the clam death might have occured.
- Your clams might be dead.
They are marine animals, so storage on ice might not be great for their health. It could also be a problem with how you transport or store the clams at home, or when you clean them: you should always clean them as soon as possible. When you soak clams in order to get rid of sand, you need the clams to use their muscles to suck water in and push water out. They are doing this because they hope to find food and oxygen in the water you give them... those poor little guys don't know what they're in for... but because they are now soaking in clean water the effect is that they push out all the sand that they sucked in when they were still living in their grime-filled natural habitat. If the clams are dead or if the clams are starving or if the clams are freezing cold, then the clams will be too weak to work their little lungs and you'll have to wait longer for them to purge the sand from their systems.- Also, 20 minutes is just a rough guideline. To quote from Honest Food:
- > Different clams need different purging times, too, depending on how and where they live. Hard shell clams in clean sand, like Eastern surf clams, cockles and quahogs, tend to be easier to purge than open-shelled clams like steamers, horseneck clams and geoducks. The worst of them all is the Western bent-nosed clam, which lives in dense mud and can take days to purge.
- https://honest-food.net/how-to-purge-sand-from-clams/
- You may want to ask your grocer for best advice on how to clean the clams sold there.
- Your clams might be dead.
- They are marine animals, so storage on ice might not be great for their health. It could also be a problem with how you transport or store the clams at home, or when you clean them: you should always clean them as soon as possible, since as more time passes more of them will die. When you soak clams in order to get rid of sand, you need the clams to use their muscles to suck water in and push water out. They are doing this because they hope to find food and oxygen in the water you give them... those poor little guys don't know what they're in for... but because they are now soaking in clean water the effect is that they push out all the sand that they sucked in when they were still living in their grime-filled natural habitat. If the clams are dead or if the clams are starving or if the clams are freezing cold, then the clams will be too weak to work their little lungs and you'll have to wait longer for them to purge the sand from their systems.
- Also, 20 minutes is just a rough guideline. To quote from Honest Food:
- > Different clams need different purging times, too, depending on how and where they live. Hard shell clams in clean sand, like Eastern surf clams, cockles and quahogs, tend to be easier to purge than open-shelled clams like steamers, horseneck clams and geoducks. The worst of them all is the Western bent-nosed clam, which lives in dense mud and can take days to purge.
- https://honest-food.net/how-to-purge-sand-from-clams/
- You may want to ask your grocer for best advice on how to clean the clams sold there.
#1: Initial revision
by
Jordan
·
2020-12-15T22:07:27Z (about 4 years ago)
Your clams might be dead. They are marine animals, so storage on ice might not be great for their health. It could also be a problem with how you transport or store the clams at home, or when you clean them: you should always clean them as soon as possible. When you soak clams in order to get rid of sand, you need the clams to use their muscles to suck water in and push water out. They are doing this because they hope to find food and oxygen in the water you give them... those poor little guys don't know what they're in for... but because they are now soaking in clean water the effect is that they push out all the sand that they sucked in when they were still living in their grime-filled natural habitat. If the clams are dead or if the clams are starving or if the clams are freezing cold, then the clams will be too weak to work their little lungs and you'll have to wait longer for them to purge the sand from their systems. Also, 20 minutes is just a rough guideline. To quote from Honest Food: > Different clams need different purging times, too, depending on how and where they live. Hard shell clams in clean sand, like Eastern surf clams, cockles and quahogs, tend to be easier to purge than open-shelled clams like steamers, horseneck clams and geoducks. The worst of them all is the Western bent-nosed clam, which lives in dense mud and can take days to purge. https://honest-food.net/how-to-purge-sand-from-clams/ You may want to ask your grocer for best advice on how to clean the clams sold there.