fresh water clams, and crayfish

[jigglestick]

anybody have first hand info on ways to prepare fresh water clams, or crayfish?
i was talking to my brother who is down in louisiana, and he is telling me how crawdad crazy these folks are there, and we got to throw into the mix the idea of fresh water clams too.
any experience with these?

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an "all chapters, charter member" jigglestick I.B.O.T.#5 have you clamped today???

[MT Net]

Hey Jigglestick,

On Vermilion, we trap them big Rusty Crayfish. Also fun from the dock is to use ice fishing sticks using leftover sausage or deli-meat on the hook and reel them up. It entertains the kids for a few hours anyway.

I boil them for 5 minuted, then take the meat out of the tails, and on the larger ones, the claws, and saute them in garlic and butter. A great appatizer for some fresh walleye.

Here is a prior link on the subject:

http://fishingminnesota.com/ubb/Forum26/HTML/000263.html

I never had feresh water clams though.

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LOTW General Member; IBOT #130

[jigglestick]

i did find a HSOforum on molusks(sp) any shellfish basically. only it listed them by their scientific names. i did finaly figure out what they were refering to the fresh water clams as, and i found some funny quotes about them.
they were refered to as probably edible, and if you ever had a dish that called for laytex that tasted like mud, then they would be perfect. the other quotes were very similar. i also found out that they are most likely to pick up the highest concentration of mercury and other toxins that would find their way to the bottom, since they are basically a filter of things on the bottom.
maybe i will focus my creative cullinations on the crayfish

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an "all chapters, charter member" jigglestick I.B.O.T.#5 have you clamped today???

[JP Z]

You also have to watch out because a lot of MN clams are protected. Here is an piece from the regs.

Mussels (Clams)•25 of Minnesota’s 48 species of mussels are protected under the state’sendangered species law. Whole mussels or parts, including shells, ofprotected species may not be taken or possessed except with a DNRpermit. Do not disturb mussels unless you are able to distinguishbetween protected and other mussel species.•Except as noted above, any person permitted by law to take fish maytake and possess up to 24 whole or 48 shell halves of dead mussels(clams) if the harvesting is done by hand. No live mussels or clamsmay be harvested or sold.•The open season for mussel (clam) shell harvest is May 16, 2004through February 28, 2005. •The commercial harvest of mussels requires a permit.•It is illegal to take any live mussel or empty mussel shell from the St. Croix River, which is a unit of the National Park Service.•Zebra mussels are illegal to possess.

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Tight Lines,

JP Z

[fish4ed]

I would not collect the bivalves (clams, etc.) here because of the previously stated regs. Crayfish, however, are another matter. Some of the best I have had come out of rivers. I was also on a camping trip where we collected a bunch one afternoon - the backwater area we collected 'em was a bit muddy, so one of the guys put the critters in milk so the crawdads would "purge" themselves. We boiled those ones up in a big pot with some Old Bay, lemons, and peppercorns and they were great. Also, you could boil them using a commercial shrimp boil. Crayfish - the other white meat.

[psegriz]

Dad and I collected some clams once to try and see what they taste like from fresh water. We oviously did something wrong cause we both were sick for 3 days.

GRIZ

[WoodlandSavage]

Freshwater clams taste like pencil erasers.

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The Woodland Savage

"Grrr baby, very grrr!"

[so haaad]

I've never ate pencil erasers...what do they taste like???

[dewoutdoor70]

they taste like,poooooo,or the thing on the end of a pencil

[Gus]

have your Louisana friend send you up some seasoning they use down there for crayfish boils. It's wonderful and there are many kinds. I can't comment specifically because I didn't keep trackk of what I have used in the past but I do know there are plenty of good ones down there. FYI, down there they suck the guts from the head portion of the body if you are into that.

[FOOT]

Crayfish.
Place in boiling water for 4-5 minutes
Remove from water and peel the tails, set aside.
Melt 1/8 lb butter in pan. Add 2 teaspoons garlic, one small chopped onion, 1/2 cup sliced carrots, 1/2 cup celery. Cook till onions are translucent. Add Black pepper and Chili Powder to taste.
Add one small can of mushroom ends and pieces. OK I'm cheap.
When this is all hot add the crayfish and serve over rice.
Delicious

[The Grebe]

I guess it is just a matter of taste? We spent a Saturday afternoon once, collecting Crayfish from the creeks around the area, when the kids were young. It was a little adventure, the kids worked the net, my wife and I worked downstream with the sticks and we got a half a 5 gallon pail full.

We took them home, rinsed them off real good, got some salted water bioling, and dropped them into it. In very short order, they would turn red. We would leave them in for a bit to make sure they were done and haul them out, rinse them off, and twist off the tail section.

I'm sure there is a better way, but we used a sisscors to snip the underside and remove the little piece of meat. We removed the mud vein, added a little lemon butter and red pepper and we all dug in to the little bowl full that we got....Myself, I thought they were kind of funky tasting, evidently, so did the others, cause there was no mad rush!

I Tried Louisiana Crawdads from Cub and they were certainly nothing to storm the bastilles over! they were about the same, as the crayfish.

River clam chowder I tried once and it was like trying to chew on a super ball! I swear that the little pieces of clam were so rubbery and chewy, they would squeek when you bit down on them! The rest of the stuff was pretty good, the taters and onions and stuff.

[Swamp Scooter]

The only way I would try them is to first purge them. Even if they are salt water clams and oysters.

Put them in a bucket of water and add salt, if from salt water, then add about a half cup of breadcrumbs to the water and let sit overnight. The clams will purge their nastiness in to the water and take in the breadcrumb pieces. This is the only way to try and eat these things. It also gets the dirt out of them.

[psegriz]

Maybe that purging would have helped may trry it sometime again.

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Goosin now but Ice is coming soon!!
GRIZ