Wayne Gisslen

Cleaning

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
  1. Clean shells thoroughly:
    • Scrub well under cold running water.
    • Scrape off barnacles, if any, with a clam knife.
    • Remove the beard, a fibrous appendage protruding from between the shells (Fig. 20.10). Do not do this until just before cooking, because it may kill the shellfish.
  2. Mussels may be sandy inside if not commercially grown. They may be soaked in brine and flour or cornmeal like clams (see previous section) to rid them of sand.

Figure 20.10 When cleaning mussels, pull off the fibrous beard that extends from between the shells.