A home cook is seeking advice on preparing frozen grooved carpet shell littleneck clams for a Cantonese-style wok recipe originally designed for live clams. Uncertain whether the commercially frozen clams are pre-cooked or raw, they wonder if thawing first allows inspection for spoilage or if adding them straight from frozen—along with their liquid—would work better. The recipe involves simmering sauce before adding the clams, but the cook is concerned about potential quality issues if they skip thawing. Experienced cooks are being asked whether these specific frozen clams are typically pre-treated or if they require full cooking from a raw state.
I have three packages of these frozen clams (Wild Fork grooved carpet shell littleneck clams), and I’m planning to make the Cantonese-style clam recipe from J. Kenji López-Alt’s The Wok. The recipe is written for live clams: you make the sauce, add the clams, cover, and cook for a few minutes until they open. Since mine are frozen, I’m not quite sure how I should handle them. I assume commercially frozen clams like these have been cooked or at least par-cooked before freezing, since obviously they aren’t alive anymore, but I’m not certain. Would you thaw them first, retaining all of the clam liquid, so you can inspect the clams and make sure none seem bad or give off any strange odors? Or would you just add them straight from frozen, along with all of the frozen clam juices? Either way, I plan on retaining and using the liquid. My thought was to make the sauce, let it simmer/thicken a little, and then add the clams and their liquid toward the end, just long enough to cook/heat them through. My only concern with adding them straight from frozen is that I wouldn't have a chance to inspect them beforehand. Anyone have experience cooking these particular frozen clams, or frozen shell-on clams in general? Am I correct that they're already cooked/par-cooked, or could they actually be frozen raw? Really appreciate any input or advice. Thanks in advance for any help! submitted by /u/-SpaghettiCat- [link] [comments]
