Well i have been thinking for a long time now how much i love muscles but i am sorry to say that i have only ever bought muscles which are preseasoned that you stick in the microwave .......im sorry hehe..

My question is how difficult is it to cook muscles that are absolutely yummy ?

and are they expensive ? i havent really looked in to it so i thought this would be a good place to start

thanks

hi, i love muscles. if u go into the recipe at top of page, type in muscles and u will find loads,to do. they r not expensive and there r so many ways to present them, simply to cook. and so many lovely tastes to tempt u. moules marinere being the most pop, but loads to choose, i have a personnel spicy fav, so if u want recipe i will post. kimi.x

Sorry fresh fruit salad & snoozy - no disrespect, but they are spelt mussels. Muscle is meat!

thats ok,Lil'Abby. was one of those days, getting late and didnt have my head in gear. hey i might even learn to spell one day. must have been all that flesh running round the football pitch last night!!! lol.

Hi
Have a look at this site, I use them all the time for Mussels
And often go to their Restaurants
If you love Mussels or oysters, this is the site for you
Cath
[link]

like the idea of a bit of cannablism eating Jasons muscles on Big Brother might cause a few problems though.

I just get my mussels from the supermarket but I always ask when they came into the store. Then I only buy them if they came in that day. If they are not in season, the supermarket won't have them anyway, so you can use that as a guide. The fresh ones need to be alive and they taste soooo much better than pre packed. So you really must give them a try.

Anyway, when you get them home, open the netting immediately and throw out any that have damaged or cracked shells or any that are open and stay open when you apply a little pressure to them. Put the rest in a bowl of cold water and if you have some porridge or ready brek, sprinkle some in the bowl. They will feed on this a stay plump, this will also go through their system and purify them a little, get rid of any grit. Put the bowl in the fridge and leave them there until you want to cook them.

They take no time at all to cook as you will see from a recipe search. I love Moules Mariniere best. But add a little chilli and it gives the dish a lift. You gonna post your spicy version then Snoozy?

Once cooked (which is as soon as the shells are open) check for any that stay closed. Throw these away as they could make you ill. So must be closed before cooking, must be open after cooking. Thats the only rule.

Mussles are so cheap and we all love them. My 5 year old son just loves picking them out of their shells and eating them.

Watched an interesting programme late last night while waiting for my husband to finish on the computer. It was "Wild and Fresh" and all about Mussels. showed some recipes too. Not my scene at all..I'm Veggie but the prog was good, apart from the woman's caterwauling!!!
Anyway if you look at the Wild and Fresh site on the home page you should get the recipes I should think..

right, my spicy mussels...
clean and cook mussels as mammachef says.
once cooked discard top shell.
in a bowl,mix together a good handful of grated mozzarela or any good melting cheese, 2 tblsp grated parmesan, 2 chopped cloves garlic, 1 chopped and seeded birds eye chilli, a handful of chopped fresh parsley and coriander,salt/pepper to taste,few dashes olive oil and 1 0z of melted butter. mix all together and top each mussel with a spoonful of mix on top. grill ,serve straight away.yummy!!

Oh Snoozy,

that sounds so yummy, I love mussels and I love cheese, so this one is a must for my scrap book. I will definately have a go at this one, thank you.

well mammachef i can def say that whoever i have cooked them for have always raved about them, and they r so easy to do, u can actually freeze them b 4 u grill , which i often do , then bag them up for another day. my kids and all their friends have become addicted to them.

I bet they do, I was just reading the loin recipe you gave relishmama. Blimey Snoozy, they all sound so good you've got me planning my entire next weeks menu. So pork loin tomorrow .....

YUMMMMMEEEEEEE. :D

lol!!!!!!!!!!! can i come round too??

Thanks so would it be best to leave buying mussels til they are in season ?

Mamma chef I never knew that about feeding them readybrek. What a great tip! I'll do that next time I have some.

If the mussels are farmed then the issue about 'R' in the month does not apply as they stagger the breading period by altering the temperature of the growing tanks

My parents used to put porridge in the bucket of cockles they collected a the beach - it cleans them out brilliantly doesn't it?

I will have a look around, and report back my success or failer :(

Thanks a bunch to everyone

Stop it, I look forward to you reporting your success. And yes indeed Lil'Abbey is works for all moloscs.beanz69 is exactly right about the farmed mussels as with oysters and Trudi is correct about the ones in the sea.what a helpful bunch we are. Pats on all our backs, all round. :D

We're off to Ireland next week, and know a little beach where you can just paddle around and pick up the oysters. But there's no r this month - so should we eat them or not?

Hi Jen,

It's not that you can't eat them when there's no R in the month, it's to do with their breeding season and if we all ate them, the stocks would run out and they would become extinct. So I think if you only having a little paddle and a couple of portions, they should survive that .

Hope you enjoy your trip, it's sounds lovely.

Thanks mammachef! I thought it was probably okay. We've eaten them before, but later i the year. I think they're ones that escaped from the proper oyster beds further out. They're great big plump ones. Mmmmmm!

Now if we could only catch our own lobsters too

Sorry but nobody has mentioned, and for a beginner-mussel-cooker its really important, before cooking, please don't forget to pull away the "beard" that most mussels have, just wrap round finger and tug, comes away really easily.

sorry anna u r right, i did say to clean just took it for granted most new what that meant and dont forget on the top, the barnicles etc. thats if u r gonna eat from the shells.