CLEANING RAZOR CLAMS

[ICEMAN]

Word has it a few folks are looking for some How To instructions on cleaning Razor Clams.

Here is how I do it, feel free to add your special tricks too.

Dig Clams
Put clams in bucket for trip home....you may keep them in water, I dont...
I bring a gallon block of freezer ice to ice my clams with as soon as I can...

Home care;
Soak clams in water, some do this overnight, others don't.
Rinse clams in sink.
Use vegetable brush to vigorously scrub the edges and shell to rinse free as much sand as you can.
Scrub them again.

While you are scrubbin your clams, get a large pot of boiling water going...
Get another pot of cold water nearby.
Toss clams a few at a time into the boiling water...until the shells obviously pop open a bit...
Now scoop them out of the hot and straight into the cold. We arent cooking them yet, so you want them to stop cooking....
After they are all in the cold, dump in the sink and rinse everything well again, keep trying to rinse the sand away.
Physically grab whole clam and pull, it will come off the shell, place in collander, toss shell.
Rinse clams.
With scissors, trim off tip of neck to use later surf fishing.
With scissors, trim out the digger/gut bag of the clam leaving the main clam body and neck free of ick.
With scissor, slice open lenghtwise the clam neck tubes, both, leaving a flat open clam neck.
If you see any irregular spots with black, or sand...now is the time to snip it out...place clean clam body in bowl, set aside.
With scissor, trim off gut, save as much digger as you can.
Open digger body in half with scissor, butterfly it open by placing scissor tip into digger from opening on bottom, and gently snip open the digger. Remove dark stringy stuff, but try to retain the fluffy sweet smelling fatty tissue, this stuff is golden. Just worry about the dark stuff, rinse it away, leave as much fatty stuff as possible, rinse and add to your clam bodies in the bowl.

After you are sure the clams are free of sand, and I mean clean, freeze them up in a gallon ziplock, with any remaining juices from your bowl.

See other recipes on the site for pressure canning into smoked razors, or pan frying...

Also check out the WDFW link :  http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/razorclm/razor9.htm

Enjoy.

Note, be careful diggin them to start makes better table fare later. Some folks using the tubes push the clam gun thru the clam really grinding the sand in.

[kbyers]

That is great, these are by far the most detailed instructions I have seen.  I was looking for something like that last night.  I have never dug clams before and am thinking about heading over to the coast for the dig scheduled for the end of March.  Here is a link to a page with pictures.  Again thanks for the instructions.

http://westportwa.com/activities/razorclams/cleaning.html

[tmike]

I found that leaving them in water for a few hours makes them purge the sand so I skip the scrubbing part.  I also pour hot water on them and immediately separate them from the shell and throw them in cold water to keep from cooking. Cleaning clams can be a pain until you get a system down.  Sounds like Iceman has a good system.

[huntnphool]

Awesome Iceman

[robb92]

Good info thanks for posting it!!!!

[HawkenBob]

Iceman, I've cleaned literally thousands. and the "scrubing part" seems it would save your scissors. I always blanch then start cutting. And my scissors always pay the price. They usaully end up as egg skein scissors in the sled.

Nice write up.

[Skyvalhunter]

Only thing different I would do is cut the tops of the necks off before boiling as these make excellent sea perch bait and they wont bite worth a damn if cut off after boiling.

[Alchase]

We leave our clams in a bucket of water and add 1/2 cup of corn meal to the water. This will irritate the clams into siphoning at a high rate. Change to clean water after a few hours and they clean themselves pretty well over night.

Great tutorials guys,

[ICEMAN]

Bump for new diggers!

[Goldeneye]

Bump for new diggers!

Good call on bringing this back to the top.   

[trophyhunt]

We skip the scrubbing part, when we put them in the boiling water (only for about 4 to 5 seconds) and then get them to ice cold water that action seems to put most the sand on the sticky slime which comes off pretty easiley. Good write up! We just had clam chowder tonight with clams we got last spring, time to get some fresh one's.

[deerhunter_98520]

I just use hot tap water and its always worked great for me

[jrebel]

Tag so I can find it again when I go clamming.  Thanks 

[NRA4LIFE]

I also do what JKEEN does.  Take a real sharp knife and slide in to cut the aductors (sp?) away from the shell.  The whole clam falls right out.  My wife then does the rest of the cleaning and de-gutting.