Wondering how clean anyone tries to get them.
Around here the big thing is Dungeness crab. I've occasionally tried cleaning the bottom, being careful to avoid getting clawed. One time I had a crab clamp onto my thumb and for an hour I was thinking I had broken bones, but then realized I was fine other than it was really red. But eating that crab was extremely satisfying after that. I usually steam them alive, which maintains the moisture. I've found that boiling and the meat shrinks too much. A few times I just ripped off the carapace and cleaned out the inside before steaming the parts. But when I steam them whole, my wife prefers that I maybe used a toothbrush to clean off the bottom where there might be algae.
I've rarely found Atlantic lobsters to be covered in anything. They're usually pretty clean, so I don't necessarily clean them.
I pretty much can only deal with Manila clams, which are pretty small. I've seen some that look like they're caked in mud. I had ones that were dug with a recreational fishing license and those were completely covered in sand and took at least a day of soaking before they were relatively clean. But when I've bought them, my wife's technique is to put salt in water and apparently they'll purge a lot of the sand inside the shell after about an hour.
Oysters can get really nasty. I've seen them covered in seaweed, barnacles, small limpets, and algae. If it's heavy on barnacles I might use an oyster knife to scrape them off, and then used a wire barbecue brush to scrape off the algae and/or seaweed. I guess it's not strictly needed, but it can get pretty nasty looking covered in all that stuff. I've pulled off some limpets and tried eating them, although usually there's very little meat.
Around here the big thing is Dungeness crab. I've occasionally tried cleaning the bottom, being careful to avoid getting clawed. One time I had a crab clamp onto my thumb and for an hour I was thinking I had broken bones, but then realized I was fine other than it was really red. But eating that crab was extremely satisfying after that. I usually steam them alive, which maintains the moisture. I've found that boiling and the meat shrinks too much. A few times I just ripped off the carapace and cleaned out the inside before steaming the parts. But when I steam them whole, my wife prefers that I maybe used a toothbrush to clean off the bottom where there might be algae.
I've rarely found Atlantic lobsters to be covered in anything. They're usually pretty clean, so I don't necessarily clean them.
I pretty much can only deal with Manila clams, which are pretty small. I've seen some that look like they're caked in mud. I had ones that were dug with a recreational fishing license and those were completely covered in sand and took at least a day of soaking before they were relatively clean. But when I've bought them, my wife's technique is to put salt in water and apparently they'll purge a lot of the sand inside the shell after about an hour.
Oysters can get really nasty. I've seen them covered in seaweed, barnacles, small limpets, and algae. If it's heavy on barnacles I might use an oyster knife to scrape them off, and then used a wire barbecue brush to scrape off the algae and/or seaweed. I guess it's not strictly needed, but it can get pretty nasty looking covered in all that stuff. I've pulled off some limpets and tried eating them, although usually there's very little meat.
