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How to Clean Seashells? Tips to Remove Dirt and Debris from Shells

Although it is a favorite dish, many people hesitate to cook snails because they do not know how to clean them properly. Refer to the following article to "keep in your pocket" some useful tips!

Administrator

25 October, 2023

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Snails are aquatic creatures, living in ponds, canals, and rice fields, so they often contain mud and impurities that have parasites. To make the food delicious and not fishy, we need to thoroughly preprocess before cooking. So how to clean snails? Let’s find out the ways to get rid of slime, dirt quickly and effectively in the following article!

What to soak snails with to clean them quickly?

Here are some preprocessing tips below that will help remove impurities, making snail dishes more delicious when cooking.

Soaking snails in a metal container

The compounds in the metal will make the snails drain the mud out. So, to clean the snails, soak them in a metal container for 2-3 hours. Or you can soak the snails in a plastic container, then put metal objects like knives, forks… into it.

How to clean snails — Soaking snails in a metal container – Image: Internet

Using rice water

This method is quite simple. You just need to prepare a bowl of rice water and soak the snails for about 1-2 hours. At this time, the snail will eat the food, swell, and stretch its tentacles. The slimy mud inside will also come out, forming clumps at the bottom of the bowl.

In addition, soaking snails with rice water also makes them fragrant and fat. If rice water is not available, you can use flour mixed with water to clean the snails.

Using fermented rice

Fermented rice is a traditional spice in Vietnamese cuisine. It has a sour and unique fragrance and is often used in many dishes such as hot pot, stew, sour soup, rice vermicelli soup, grilled meat…

Because the sour taste of fermented rice has the effect of removing fishy smells and cleaning snails. So, you can take an appropriate amount of fermented rice, mix it evenly with the snails, and then boil the mixture.

Using condiments such as vinegar, lime, chili

Condiments like vinegar, lime, and chili have the effect of making snails release the mud and remove the slime quickly.

To clean snails quickly, prepare a mixture of water with sour vinegar, lime, chili powder, or crushed fresh chili. Then soak the snails for about 2-3 hours. To increase the effectiveness, you can add salt to make the water salty.

Note that after soaking in this way, you should rinse the snails several times with clean water and cook them immediately to keep the fresh taste.

Soaking snails in beer

This is also a trick that many people apply to clean snails and remove slime. After rinsing the snails with clean water several times, pour a can of beer into a container and soak the snails for about 2 hours. At this time, the impurities and slime of the snails will be released and stick to the bottom of the container.

How to clean snails to remove slime before cooking

The snail meat is processed into delicious dishes such as mixed snails, stir-fried snails, stuffed snails, snail sausage, or vermicelli soup…

To ensure the dishes retain their fragrant taste, preprocessing the snail meat is crucial. Many people mistakenly have the habit of rinsing the snail meat with water multiple times. This does not clean the slime but instead makes the snails produce more slime,

The best way is to use vinegar or salted egg yolks to squeeze the snail meat and soak it for about 2-3 minutes before confidently cooking into delicious dishes.

Notes when processing snails

Although snails are delicious and nutritious food, during the processing and enjoyment, you need to pay attention to the following:

Add lemon leaves, lemongrass, ginger when boiling snails

Add a few crushed lemon leaves, ginger, lemongrass as the bottom lining, then pour the snails on top. The aroma of these spices will remove the fishy smell, making the snails tastier and more attractive.

Soaking the snails too long

You should only soak the snails for 1-3 hours depending on the method of soaking. If soaked for too long, the snails will die. This not only makes the food have an unpleasant smell but also affects the nutrition and can cause food poisoning, digestive tract infection, intestinal infection.

Not cleaning the snails

Snails live in an environment with a lot of mud, impurities, and are prone to bacterial and parasitic infections. Therefore, they need to be thoroughly cleaned before processing to ensure food safety for consumers.

Removing the snail gut, snail brain

The snail gut is a part that contains a lot of dirt. Meanwhile, the snail brain at the head contains toxins that can cause dizziness and food poisoning if eaten in large quantities. Therefore, when eating, you need to remove these parts.

Cooking the snails thoroughly

Most seafood contain Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria. This type of bacteria can only be killed at temperatures above 80 degrees Celsius. Therefore, you need to cook the snails thoroughly in boiling water for 4-5 minutes before eating. Absolutely do not eat undercooked snails to avoid the risk of bacterial and parasitic infections.

Hope the above article has helped you answer the question of how to clean snails. This is a familiar ingredient that can be processed into many different dishes. To fully enjoy the delicious taste, it is essential to clean the snails before preprocessing.

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