horse clams

[kisfish]

Question for you all that dig clams. I love to eat manila's and go occasionally dig a bucket for steam and eat. A little white wine and garlic dipped in butter, or popped in some pasta.yummy. I am not a huge fan of cockles and normally cover them back up. I see lot's of horse clams and have dug a couple. They are really good sized but ugly as all get out. Do they taste good? Are they a huge pain to clean? How do you normally cook them. Thanks.

[NRA4LIFE]

They make fabulous crab bait.  Never ate them.

[kisfish]

That's what I did with the two I have dug. They do work well.

[jackmaster]

they make the absolute best crab bait, and they also make awesome clame chowder, that way you dont gotta waist your razor clams on chowder, you just clean them like normal, we have always soaked them in a bucket of water so they clean out, but i think everyone does that 

[bigdave]

Our family "Vacations" used to be at Birch Bay getting up at 5 in the morning to catch the low tide to dig horse clams. With 6 of us our limit was 42 unless we had friends with us. (Think 42 post holes dug with a shovel in wet concrete)

I've eaten hundreds if not over a thousand. They are great in chowder....we would grind them up with an old clamp on the counter hand grinder. They are also tasty in clam fritters.

Cleaning is very labor intensive. (Thank God my sisters always got stuck standing at the sink for hours!)  We used to sit on our buckets in a tide pool and rough clean and take the necks, the foot and 2 muscles used to close the shell. Then my Mom and Sisters would spend a long time at the cabin rinsing peeling the necks and rinsing to get rid of sand.  In all the years we dug there not once did we get checked by a fish and game. I always thought that was odd.

[Hunterman]

Soak them overnight just like any other clam. They are great in chowder, or like others have said, fried up, but not to long to tuffen them up..

Hunterman(Tony)

[wildmanoutdoors]

Great for fritters! Mmmmmmmm.....

[kisfish]

well I think I might dig a few and clean them up and give them a whirl in fritters and chowder. I will let you know how they turn out.

[elkontherun]

We did them every year and can them then use them in chowder. They come out of the pressure cooker tender and tasty.

[Mtn.Ghost]

Chowder, fritters yes but they are just as good steamed and garlic buttered just don't steam them to death,throw out the belly and eat the good lips, muscle and snout it make for a nice big bite Cockles are crap. Oh horse clams are also dandy smoke just not the bellies.