Should Mussels Be Open Before Cooking
Mussels are delicious and high in vitamins like b12 but there are plenty of stories about people getting sick after eating shellfish.
Should mussels be open before cooking. Shellfish including mussels must be impeccably fresh when you eat them or you will risk getting ill. One or two cracked shells isnt a huge concern it happens but if the majority of the mussels are open or show cracked shells. Apart from when. Store mussels in a bowl covered with a damp cloth in the bottom of the fridge.
The best way to check the safety of mussels is to check them before you cook them. Discard the ones that remain open or any that are damaged they have perished and are not safe to. If you find a mussel that is gaping wide openforget about it. I still always wait to beard my mussels until not more than 20 minutes before cooking them.
Consuming mussels that have perished before cooking can cause food poisoning. When buying mussels look for mussels that have tightly closed shells and that smell fresh and briny like the ocean. Mussels should be alive when you cook them. This is supposed to avoid killing the mussel.
And in the mussels that finally did open thanks to the overcooking the meat was now shrunken and tough. Despite all the goings on above about tapping mussels that are open this instruction assumes the mussel is just slightly open. Wash the mussels with a stiff kitchen brush under cool running water and remove the beard.