are canned clams any good

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Fresh clams are a thing of beauty, but canned clams should have a place in your pantry. They are healthy, affordable and can take that plain pasta from drab to fab.
are canned clams any good

What are canned clams?

These are meaty chunks of clams that are cleaned, cooked, and packed in brine. You’ll see a few different styles at the store, including minced, chopped, and whole. Advertisement

I have never seen the appeal of minced clams, which are far too shredded and thin to carry any real texture or flavor. I have also found that whole baby clams, at least when coming from major brands like Bumble Bee and Geisha, have a sort of underdeveloped flavor and texture. Chopped clams, however, are still chunky enough that you can savor their delicious texture.

Chopped clams usually come in two different varieties, sea and ocean. Ocean clams are a bit darker, firmer, and meatier. They have robust flavor. Ocean clams remind me of dark meat chicken, and they’re the clams I grew up using for linguine and clams (more on that soon). Sea clams are a bit tougher, with less flavor. The breast meat of clams.Advertisement

Buy these brands of canned clams

You do not want to get canned clams from just anywhere. As with tuna and sardines, the national brands leave something to be desired. I have found, though, that Snow’s and Bar Harbor provide a pretty decent product. Personally, I like the regional companies that ship at a low cost or sell their products in the Midwest.Advertisement

Lamonica Fine Foods, seller of Cape May brand chopped clams, is one such company, and the product is excellent. This 51-oz. can right here is the one I saw most while working in restaurants as a teenager, usually stacked sideways on a tiered can rack, then grappled off and opened with an industrial can opener on the ledge of a stainless steel counter.

Cape May ocean clams are incredibly savory, sweet, and salty, and they come packed in delicious clam juice—that is, the liquid from the clam cooking process. That juice not only helps preserve the clams and their freshness, it packs a wallop of flavor. This magical brine, and its abundance, completely outweighs what you would extract from cooking fresh clams yourself. That’s why, depending on the application, canned clams are superior to fresh.Advertisement

Canned clam review

FAQ

Are canned clams as good as fresh?

That juice not only helps preserve the clams and their freshness, it packs a wallop of flavor. This magical brine, and its abundance, completely outweighs what you would extract from cooking fresh clams yourself. That’s why, depending on the application, canned clams are superior to fresh.

Can you eat clams straight from the can?

There is no food safety danger if the products are not heated before being consumed.

Do you need to rinse canned clams?

Besides just getting rid of dirt and grime that could have made its way into your canned clams, some brands contain additional additives and chemicals for storage and preservation. Rinsing your clams can help remove these, leaving you with just the tasty seafood.

How healthy are canned clams?

The Food and Drug Administration found a sample of canned clams contained 20,000 parts per trillion, or ppt, of PFOA, one of the most common members of the class of toxic forever chemicals known as PFAS. All ten samples of clams tested had high levels of PFAS and are considered likely to be a health concern by the FDA.

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