Cockle Rakin' Adventure 3.15

[Fish_N_Russ]

Stayed on Siletz Bay at a nice rental house for the wife's 30th this past weekend.

Had expected to go down to the rocks @ Depoe, but the swell was pretty rough........too rough for me anyway :shocked:

So as a secondary plan, I told the wife we should try raking cockles. Neither of us had ever done it. After LOTS of walking and probing and proding here and there we finally found a little section with many cockles. Got our limits in about 5 minutes after that.


I didnt know cockles get this big! I had always thought they were about walnut size or a little bigger. Some were pushing 4 inches across......good sized!



Didnt really know how to cook them, so steamed em and vac sealed the meats (after cleaning).

Anyone have a good cockle recipies? Or are they just used for chowder and bait? :grin:

[Wreckless]

They are a little tough but the flavor is good. They make great chowder and I've cleaned 'em and fried 'em like razors, chewy, but good. Some people frown on cockles but they're better than nothin'. I've also eaten them "just steamed" cleaned and dipped in a spiced up cocktail sauce, but then again I eat raw Oysters, Tuna, Amberjack, Salmon........mmmmmmm, mmmmmm!

[Mojo]

I usually Catch and Release the big ones, the 1.5 inch and smaller ones make good steamers...

[Fish_N_Russ]

Yeah I would have tried steaming some smaller ones if there was smaller ones to be found :smile:

Hopefully next time I can find some gapers for strips........I tried frying one of the cockles and yeah chewy to say the least :grin:

[fortywinks]

That's a decent batch of cockles, but they are one of the toughest(chewy)clams for eating. They also have a lot of sand inside the shell, so it is mandatory to clean them first, and that takes a little practice, since they are very hard to open. Use an oyster knife(dull but thick blade) and insert into the small crease where the neck comes out, force it in and run against the shell to cut the muscle and it will open right up. Be careful the blade does not slip when you are trying to forcefully insert it(hence the dull blade) or you will jab your hand. And use just enough pressure to do the job, or you will bust the shell and cleaning will be much harder. After separating the meat from the shell cut the stomach and remove the black and green matter and wash and rinse. As I say, it takes some practice but I have cleaned 40 to 60 at a time myself. There are some so-called clam splitters that are sold on the coast made out of a machette type knife mounted on a board, but they tend to bust the cockle shells, and I personally don't like them.

Since the cockles are pretty tough we will chop them for chowder or spaghetti clam sauce and vac pack it for future use. They have good flavor used like that. We also have ground them and made clam fritters. If you clean them fresh and rinse well, you will also eliminate the sandy grit when it is time to eat. They are certainly one of the easiest clams to locate and to harvest, and little kids can join in and find them too, so they make a great family outing adventure, as long as you are prepared to care for and use what you harvest.

[Fshklr]

Grind them up and make fritters or chowder..those are some dandy's [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Fritter batter.
1cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 pint chopped clams(approx 3 cups)
2 whole scallion(salad onions)chopped 1/4" pieces

Take flour and baking powder and mix, then make a well into it and place the 2 eggs in the well and gently with a whisk beat eggs then gradually work flour into the eggs until smooth
once smooth add milk and stir until smooth then add clams and scallions.

Preheat castiron skillet(or heavy fry pan) to med to med hi heat.
once heated add 1 TBL of olive oil and 1TBL of butter to pan..mix and drop batter by spoon fulls to make silver dollar size fritters.
heat 3 mins a side (top will be darker than the bottom)
once removed from pan to paper towels salt imediately to taste..serve with horseradish ketchup or tarter and fresh coleslaw.

[ 03-18-2004, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: Fshklr ]

[FishFood]

With any tough, rubbery meat a great way to soften it up is in a pressure cooker. I like octopus, but most people would think it's too tough (of course some people would just be creeped out by it). I put it in the pressure cooker and depending on time can get it as tender as filet mignon. Gotta be careful, though. Too long and you get mush.

This might also work on those cockles, though I've never had them.

[Pitch Pocket]

Steam em, clean em, grind or mince em and make chowder or clam dip or fritters. Can't imagine why anyone would turn up their nose to cockles. They are delicious.

[SKP]

Yum Yum!

I hope this posts sticks around, it's been lost in the shuffle so many times, I can't count!

SKP :grin:

[Mojo]

If you can keep them in a bucket of fresh clean sea water, they'll blow out all the sand themselves in 4-6 hours. The key is replacing the water every half hour to hour. Then they are really pretty clean.

I use the bigger ones for chowder too. They are awesome! Last week I made a batch with 2 gapers and about a dozen cockles. MMMMMMM, yummy!