Cleaning and Preparing Clams

Appears in
Chinese Technique
Chinese Technique

By Ken Hom

Published 1981

  • About
Clams are as popular in China as they are in the West, but the Chinese rarely eat them raw. Instead, techniques for cooking clams strive to make the best of the clam’s flavorful juices. Often the clams are simply steamed and dipped into a sauce that incorporates the juices. Stir-fried and simmered with black beans, the juices become the foundation of the sauce. The Chinese prefer smaller clams because they are more tender.
  1. Scrub the grit from the clam shells under running water. Feel the weight of each clam. If it feels especially light, discard it; the clam is dead.

  2. Put the clams in a large bowl and cover them with water. Put a clean cleaver in the water with the clams. The iron in the cleaver causes the clams to spew out any sand and grit that may be inside the shells (this takes about two hours). Drain the clams. (Note the sand at the bottom of the bowl.)