John Myers
Mussels spoil very quickly and should therefore always be prepared on the day they are purchased. If you do not buy ready-to-cook copies, you must first clean them thoroughly before preparing them. Before the seafood including the shell is cooked in the pot, mussels that have already opened must be sorted out. After the mussels have been cooked in a broth, they are served and can even be eaten without cutlery.
Preparation is one of the most important steps when trying our mussels recipe, for example. So that their taste is not negatively affected, you should first remove limescale residue and barnacles from the shell. Both can be carefully scraped off with a knife. Then you have to debeard the mussels: run a knife along the opening of the shell and remove the bitter-tasting threads with which the mussels cling to stones, posts, or the seabed. There may still be sand in the bowl, it can be rinsed out under running water.
Then it is a matter of sorting out the bad mussels. This includes specimens with clearly damaged or open shells. A test reveals whether such mussels might still be good: Gently tap the seafood on a kitchen board. If the mussel closes again, it can still end up in the pot. All others are considered spoiled and should be thrown away for health reasons.
Cook the remaining mussels in stock. The classic way is to steam root vegetables, onions, and garlic in oil and season with salt and pepper. Then deglaze with white wine and water and bring to a boil. Cook the mussels in this broth over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes. The meat of the mussel falls out by itself.
The seafood is served with the shell and some broth. Any meat stuck in the shell can be easily removed with mussel tongs, you can also use the empty shell of a mussel that has already been eaten. Under no circumstances should you use force to open and eat mussels that have not opened during cooking, but rather sort them out and dispose of them, these specimens are also spoiled.
