Help! What to do with fresh Mussels?

Pink.

They will probably be fine to eat. The way to find out is rinse them, de-beard them and then cook them.

We should only eat fresh mussels that are still alive at the time of cooking.

To check if they are still alive, while you are handling them give them a tap and they will more than likely close. Some close more slowly than others so don't worry too much if they don't all close immediately, but do discard any with broken shells.

Once you hae cooked them they should open wide if they were still alive when cooked....that's how you know that they are fresh and haven't possibly been dead and decaying for a week. Throw any away that don't open wide at this stage.

We have an earlier thread on cooking mussels:

Help! What to do with fresh Mussels?

And this one on buying mussels:

Buying Mussels

I'll add your thread to one of those later to keep the replies together.

Pink

Yolina

If you haven't already, get them out of the water! Check that they are still closed (tap gently on any opened ones, if they close then they're alive) - if so then they should be ok and any that remains open should be discarded (the opposite applies when cooked - you ditch the ones that haven't opened).

Edit: hadn't seen Pink-Winged reply... Serves me right for feeding the cats before hitting the "post" button :rotfl:

Football_Widow_2

Thanks for taking the time to reply. They are now scrubbed, de bearded and safely in the fridge ready for tomorrow.

Thank you once again x

grannybroon

My local Lidl have their delicious mussels on special half price weekend offer (garlic or herb sauce). I absolutely adore these and gorge myself when they do come on offer so going to buy some tomorrow. There is no instruction for freezing so assume they are best eaten fresh from fridge so will need to look for longest use by/best before dates. Would you take a chance and freeze them?

lizzyb1812

Tesco sell bags of mussels, shelled, no sauce, that are already frozen, so freezing should not be a problem I wouldn't have thought. Check the dates though - I have just stocked up on vac packed beetroot from Aldi - use by date December! So you may find they last in the fridge for quite a while anyway.

I too love these :T

floss2

If there are no instructions on, I would maybe deduce that they had already been frozen at some point in their life.....in which case, I wouldn't re-freeze them.

grannybroon

floss2 wrote: »

If there are no instructions on, I would maybe deduce that they had already been frozen at some point in their life.....in which case, I wouldn't re-freeze them.

Thanks - I think you are right on this. Being shellfish I think I will err on the side of caution and just go for the longest fridge shelf life I can get.

Farway

OK, stupid question. I have never eaten mussels or bought them in my life

I live near the sea and seeing them growing on / near sewer outfalls always deterred me, bit like cockling

If I buy some from Lidl morrow, just what do I do with them?

Are the cooked? If not and assuming no instructions just what do I do?

If they are ready cooked, is it just bung in hot water / microwave etc?

grannybroon

Farway wrote: »

OK, stupid question. I have never eaten mussels or bought them in my life

I live near the sea and seeing them growing on / near sewer outfalls always deterred me, bit like cockling

If I buy some from Lidl morrow, just what do I do with them?

Are the cooked? If not and assuming no instructions just what do I do?

If they are ready cooked, is it just bung in hot water / microwave etc?

I live near the East Coast too but I would never actually eat fresh mussels from around here just in case of pollution. I have however bought them from local fishmonger and cooked them. I clean these Mussels and boil for a few minutes white wine and garlic. The mussels are alive when I buy them:eek:

However Lidl's mussels are lovely. You basically just pop the vacuum bag into some hot water on the cooker for a few minutes and they are cooked. Full, clear instructions are on the packaging. If you do buy them, hope you enjoy.

C_Mababejive

Just to add further, i bought a pack of high vac packed mussels with a white wine sauce from M&S a month or so ago. I cant recall if they were part of the two for ten or not but they were a good deal anyway.

It was one of my first forays into such products.

Anyway reading the pack it said they were rope grown Atlantic mussels and gace location..not UK..sounded healthy !

Method of cooking,blip in the microwave and leave to stand.

Incidentally, i dished them up in a bowl of their own and served with separately plated fresh papadrelle pasta..and a nice bottle of white...very nice.

My feeling re storage is that they have probably had some processing before being vac packed so i would go for longest fridge life and would be happy for the use by date to over run by 2 or 3 weeks.