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What's the concensus? I know that farmed mussels go through all sorts of safety treatments like irradiation etc, but will I be ok eating wild caught ones from a Scottish sea loch that has no fish farms on it?
I doubt it. You will shit yourself inside out.
Most probably die, so that’ll learn you.
of course they will be fine.
No, but you might wish that you would and then be afraid that you won’t
of course they will be fine.
Fyne?
From a about 230 onwards
Fyne?
You could get loched up for that one.
so that’ll learn you.
Oosh, grandma alert.
I've eaten wild mussels. Never had a problem. Just be sensible and don't eat any that don't open up when you cook them. I think you're also supposed to only eat them when there's an 'r' in the month (i.e. not in the middle of Summer) which kind of makes sense.
I'm sure you will be fine
http://theconversation.com/why-its-safer-to-eat-shellfish-in-months-with-a-letter-r-20174
Mays close enough to April, right?!
I know that farmed mussels go through all sorts of safety treatments like irradiation etc
The muscles themselves arent subjected to any irradiation (which is probably for the best as they should still be alive when you cook them). They are placed in a tank of clean water and the water is usually filtered and circulated past some strong UV lights that kill any bacteria. Presumably you can replicate that process with clean water changed regularly (commercial muscles are treated for 24 hrs).
People were eating muscles long before these processes existed. Although there were some rules like only eat shellfish in a month with an R in it (because in the warm summer months the bad stuff is more likely to grow). May-August would be best avoided. Probably more important is making sure that there isn’t a waste outfall nearby. I suspect some small Scottish hamlets still discharge largely untreated waste direct to sea, and may have relatively small outlets - larger settlements will be more obvious and whilst treated are likely to still be putting out nasty stuff.
Cheers Poly, it was the UV thing I was thinking of, not irradiation.
Anyway, these are from a remote sea loch with very little habitation nearby, I'll let you know if I end up in A&E in Fort William!
I would have thought you would know about it quite quickly, your body usually knows something is wrong and starts trying to expel any issues.
Assuming it’s a sea loch, you’d want to match the salinity of the washing water you’re going to leave them in to the salinity of where you got them from
Cooked properly and they wont do you any harm, but they can be quite hard work due to the amount of grit and byssus from living on the rocks. Commercial mussels are grown on ropes for good reason.
We harvested them from the beach in near Knoydart a few years back. Put in stream water and changed it a few times though I thought that was mainly to try get rid of the sand.
They were still a bit gritty - advice we'd ignored was to take them off the rocks away from the sand.
No-one died. Couldn't find the cheap wine so they were cooked in good South African sparkling wine. tasted great.
I'd want to make sure there were no algae blooms near where I was collecting them. There has been a lot of them the past few years. No amount of cooking will make you safe from the toxins. You'll want to avoid gathering mussels over the summer months as that's when they spawn and will be at their worst.
Done it plenty of times in the summer in the Morbhian (Brittany, inland Sea)
Caught them off moorings and rocks, didn’t die on any occasion... it’s kinda what da frenchies do innit.
Had plenty of nasty reactions in French restaurants whilst eating mussels though.
Doesnt take long (about 15mins with me) to realise they’re not right.
That old “stick one on the end of your tongue” before eating it works about 50/50 IME..
If used to rope grown muscles the grit can be a bit of a shock. Definitely worth harvesting from rocks further from sand. Also avoid close to where there is a little stream/outlet nearby especially if it has rain recently.
Totally random aside - listening to a speaker on travel heath on Saturday. He mentioned avoiding lobster in seaside asian location from cheap restaurants and street vendors. A cheeky trick in some tourist areas of taking small caught lobsters, attaching a rope to them and then dangling them back in off jetties and piers in the nutrient rich sewage outflow to fatten them up before pulling them out and presenting as fresh caught to unsuspecting tourists. And also (to go even further of topic) the issue with catching hepatitis from soft fruit like strawberries because the pickers are paid by weight and have learnt the knack of pissing in the collection bags to increase the mass and as soft fruit are not cooked and maybe not washed well....you can work out the rest.
We have done it , without issue . On the West coast of Scotland , there are normally prominent warnings on signs if there is any issue. Pick ones from tidal rocks in pebbly not muddy bays , well away from septic tank drains ie not in a line between a house and the shore. Don't cook any that don't close when tapped don't eat any that don't open in the cooking.
Purge them in sal****er (tapwater with 35g salt per litre) with a handful of finely ground oatmeal chucked in. They filter feed so the process flushes grit from the gut systems. 12 hours (overnight) should do it. The R in the month thing is because mussels spawn in later spring/early summer and so their meat levels are poor, reducing their shelf-life. Freshly foraged mussels therefore won't spoil if you eat them straightaway, but I'd avoid anything sold inland during the summer.
As for toxins, well, I'd be looking for mussels on a stretch of coastline away from any sewer outlets and away from streams that could be carrying runoff from farmland, especially cattle pasture.
listening to a speaker on travel heath on Saturday. He mentioned avoiding lobster in seaside asian location from cheap restaurants and street vendors. A cheeky trick in some tourist areas of taking small caught lobsters, attaching a rope to them and then dangling them back in off jetties and piers in the nutrient rich sewage outflow to fatten them up before pulling them out and presenting as fresh caught to unsuspecting tourists. And also (to go even further of topic) the issue with catching hepatitis from soft fruit like strawberries because the pickers are paid by weight and have learnt the knack of pissing in the collection bags to increase the mass and as soft fruit are not cooked and maybe not washed well….you can work out the rest.
sounds like typical causal racism.
did he also talk about chinese restaurants using dead dog, and kentucky fried rat?
if only it wasnt such a hassle to post pictures i show you the kentucky fried rat that one of the locals brought to BBQ last night here in africa.... (only it wasnt kentucky fried and was infact still an entire 3ft rat)
sounds like typical causal racism.
did he also talk about chinese restaurants using dead dog, and kentucky fried rat?
Would it help if I told you he was from Thailand? Not a 2nd generation UK born person of Thai descent but a genuine fresh off the plane 12hrs ago Thai national. Talking first hand about issues he had dealt with in his role as extracter of stupid gap year buffoons for a repatriation firm working for travel insurance companies. 🙂
It’s an interesting addition to the story, but having experienced at first hand how amazing racist the Chinese and Taiwanese can be about each other I’m not sure I’d change my mind too much.
A cheeky trick in some tourist areas of taking small caught lobsters, attaching a rope to them and then dangling them back in off jetties and piers in the nutrient rich sewage outflow to fatten them up before pulling them out and presenting as fresh caught to unsuspecting tourists.
How is that going to fatten them up? They're not filter feeders.
Anyway, I'm still alive & well. Mustv'e picked about 3-4 kilos, scraped the barnacles off, gave each one a good scrub (took ages) & steamed them in 3 batches for about 2-3 mins each. I'd just happened to have brought a smoking kit with me (which I usually do fresh mackarel in) so I chucked all the mussels in that with some oak chips & let them smoke away for 15 mins or so.
Tasted a few & they were delicious but I 'drizzled' some herb infused olive oil over them as well. Ate the lot last night.
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7404/26863745116_36a92fee84_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7404/26863745116_36a92fee84_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/GVRHvf ]Mussels[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/962/40153568940_ae81c90dcf_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/962/40153568940_ae81c90dcf_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/24bex7L ]IMG_20180506_130305379[1][/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmygrainger/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
That looks amazing! Nice work!! 🙂
How is that going to fatten them up? They’re not filter feeders.
Got to confess I did wonder about that - they eat the crustaceans and other wrigglies that thrive on sewage ridden water I guess.
Scoffed a load of mussels that were collected in sight of Faslane sub base one year - boiled them in of Guinness. No probs whatsoever, I don’t know if they’d been irradiated by the subs or not but they were mahoosive!
Ur gonna be like a brown Old Faithfull.
Ur gonna be like a brown Old Faithfull.
Brownsplosion?
They were from neither of those lochs Scotroutes.