Do You Need To Clean Seafood With Shells Before Eating It?

Washing, rinsing, or otherwise cleaning animal proteins is the subject of some surprisingly heated debate. Bobby Flay famously washes his chicken, for example. The diplomatic folks at the United States Department of Agriculture, not so much — but they are more or less like, "You do you." Seafood can be even more of a puzzler. It already lives in the water, after all, the very same stuff that comes out of the tap for chicken-rinsers everywhere. Shellfish in particular even seems to come in a whole darn natural package to protect it from the elements, similarly to a banana or an orange. You wouldn't wash a peeled banana or an orange, would you? But, as anyone who's ever had something like a gritty mussel can tell you, yeah, you should probably clean the stuff.

Assume that any shellfish you bring home from the grocery store or supermarket (or wherever else) will need some kind of tidying before cooking. The sea is a gritty place, what with its sandy floor and the not-so-natural debris known to breach its waves. And said grit can collect in and around your mussels, clams, oysters, and other bivalves, crustaceans, and the like. At a minimum, you should always plan to at least run them under cold water, and often even scrub (or more) to rid them of those errant bits. And some shellfish need a more targeted bath than others for the tastiest finish.

Plenty of shellfish varieties are pretty commonly prepared at home, so there is robust guidance about how to spruce them up. Although it's absent the hard encasement that some might more directly associate with shellfish, shrimp might just be among the most common. They're also among the most tedious to clean, so ask the pros at the fish counter to do it for you. Otherwise you'll need to peel the suckers by cracking their shells to liberate the soft meat inside, then devein them by slicing and daintily yanking the dark seam that runs down each one's back before cooking. It isn't hard, per se, but the detailed, hands-on repetition sure does make cleaning some other shellfish seem easy.

You can clean mussels perfectly every time by first plucking the thread that dangles from each one to debeard, scrubbing them under cold, running water with a firm brush, soaking in cold, salted water to purge interior grime, and rinsing once more. You can successfully clean clams even more easily with no beards to rid. You may need only to soak, scrub, and rinse, depending on how dirty they seem. You'll also need to clean oysters before you can shuck them like a pro. These you'll only rinse and scrub, as submerging oysters in tap water will kill the living mollusks which, yes, are intended to be consumed alive. And luxe live lobster lovers will be properly pleased to know that those spendy pincers don't need quite as much labor before they're prepared. A quick rinse is more than enough to get them ready for the pot.