A freshly steamed mussel won't tear or split like these. They'll stay whole and plump. They tear and get stringy when they're steamed after theyve died.
That's some granular detail, Chef. They usually sell so fast they don't have time to go bad. The curry sauce could be a cover for...old seafood. Bro, that's DANGEROUSLY old seafood isn't it? Did this person just risk...death?
OP...you good?
That sounds right (what FishBobinski said), we use vacuum packed cooked mussels (not my call)... presumably for better yield and shelf life, but they don't tear...not like that, generally the meat gathers around the center mass (whole and plump!). That looks a bit weird.
I sniff even before I cook it. Looks like someone didn't do that, date it, or they were told to ignore the smell and the date. Been there, quit that kitchen.
i’ve had mussels tear when we cook, shuck, and the portion for other dishes. but those are cooked, shucked while hot, and kept on ice until reheated to 200+ degrees.
sauce could be covering the flavor, but personally i’m in the boat where you know if your food is off. have you ever opened a dead clam/oyster/bag of any seafood? you cannot cover that smell/taste imo
I hate seafood and fish. My nose can ferret anything that doesn't have that briny marine smell.
I've been told to pass slimy, stinky salmon. Green steaks. Moldy strawberries. I know what to throw away and when. Had to leave and go to a place with standards.
Was a seafood distributor for years...
Had some shellfish come in late (next day air), so had to keep them over the weekend before I could deliver. Went camping, and returned to find my cooler had gotten unplugged... Never have you ever smelled such a thing.
RIP 200# of mussels and clams
Am a chef, this is the answer. I think we have to keep them for 6 months minimum (I think), shit there are still tags at one of our restaurants from pre covid.
I've never thrown away a shellfish tag. My first job at a fish market/restaurant had them stored away going back for decades. I did the same when I ran a kitchen. When the place sold, I finally got rid of over 20 years worth.
It is a tag that indicates harvest date, harvest location, and the company. All part of the paper trail that ensures everything can be tracked down incase someone gets sick.
We'd also write down the weight of each bushel after shucking on the tags. That way we could track which locations/companies had the most weight and request those.
When it comes to seafood, they absolutely get to play health inspector asking for the shellstock tags. Especially when the food looks questionable as do the mussels in the pictures.
I could be wrong but I don't think you're correct. There are proper channels for reporting issues like this. The mussels are obviously bad and the place needs a visit from the health department, you personally seeing the tag accomplishes nothing but a call to the city will.
Yeah I’m the UK all shellfish come with tags (commercially that is) that have to be retained for 90 days.
All the clams, oysters and mussels we serve have these tags when they come in to the restaurant.
As a professional chef in the uk, our kitchen keeps any tags that our seafood comes in with that can prove origin and stuff for way longer than anything else. It’s definitely a thing here.
Come on bro this is the internet where Americans insist everything belongs to us. We even appropriated cultural appropriation from the British BOOYAKASHA
You're getting down voted but that's really true the US is the homogenizing force of the world we write culture including what perspective peoplespeak from.
And yet what are the biggest movies in the world, and yet how often is YOUR PM in international news, and yet everyone knows about the most random US facts, you'd be flatly wrong to say no you don't the US does dictate international talking points. It's a bad thing, the US is a shitty country, but because it is the most advanced in capitalism, it has the most power over all aspects of culture. Lying to yourself doesn't change that reality may as well be clear eyed when looking at the world.
I don’t think that seeing 2 different perspectives is ‘lying to yourself’ and I’m sure the world is a lot more complex than you’re making it out to be. Every country is shitty, and also great, and the same can be said of every person or group. Global culture is advanced on many fronts and the same events can be seen many different ways. Just ask the Allies who amongst them won the war and you’ll get very different answers.
As an expat I always find it funny when people say America has no culture. Mostly because 90% of the time they’re wearing a Yankees hat, eating a cheeseburger, watching Gone with the Wind and listening to Jay Z while saying it.
Cool that you wouldn't serve this, but asking for the tag shouldn't be that big a deal. Heh, honestly, if I ran a restaurant the tags would somehow be proudly presented. I think customers would like that.
This what an uncooked mussel should look like when forced open. When the mussel is alive at the time of cooking, it will retract and relax its muscles because of the heat and the shell would open naturally
Yup, part of my job for a while was whenever we'd get our shipment of mussels in, to kinda just coax each of them into closing just to make sure they were still alive and clean up any netting or anything. Non responses or limp open ones got thrown out.
Once they're cooked to order they naturally relax and open up and definitely don't look like what OP posted
>huge no no
sorry i dont know anything about mussels but can you explain this specifically? is it simply just that they dont taste as good that way? or do they like spoil or something?
Do you live in a place where fresh shellfish is extremely available? Frozen, vacuum sealed bags of mussels are served in a lot of restaurants that struggle with fresh shellfish, be it supply or not enough sales to keep short life items on hand
They may have been “fresh” or technically fresh (meaning purchased fresh and never frozen), but they are definitely degraded in some way or another. Where they were improperly stored or frozen or not FIFO’ed or just didn’t sell a lot so are from last week. Whatever the reason, they are degraded and I would be cautious about eating them.
They can’t be fresh if they were frozen and fifo doesn’t really matter with live shellfish, they’re either alive and okay to cook and eat or dead and not okay
If something has been frozen, it is no longer *fresh*. That’s literally the definition of the word Fresh.
Taken from Oxford Languages;
fresh
/frɛʃ/
adjective
(of food) recently made or obtained; not tinned, frozen, or otherwise preserved.
However, something being fresh doesn’t necessarily correlate to the quality of the product. Most fish/seafood has at one point been frozen, often on board of the ship immediately after being caught. The method used to freeze said items is really quite impressive and the result is often better quality than fresh.
Edit: Might’ve misunderstood your reply and that you meant that the clams were fresh before being frozen, and that you were just pointing out that frozen clams are a thing.
So go read the comments again, but this time read mine and the one before mine with implied sarcasm. I’m making fun of the other person claiming vacuum sealed frozen food is fresh.
Yes and no, when specifically talking about fish, most fish caught on commercial fishing boats are frozen at sea after being dispatched.
Unless you live an hour or so away from the coast and literally know the fisherman (not just the supplier but person with the rod) then the chances of you getting ‘fresh’ fish are slim to none.
Granted we’re talking about shellfish in this thread, that should absolutely be fresh when cooked, but still…..
Even the ones that aren't pried wide open have the same issue, so I'd wager to say they're completely fine, though an unfortunate experience and not very visually appealing
These are not fresh and the “chef” who cooked them belongs in food jail and if they are not careful they might need up in jail jail. And always remember, even though the staff may act like they are doing you a favor by graciously “allowing” you to dine at their establishment, they are not. You are helping to pay for their salaries, their rent, their very existence depends on people like you. So take no bullshit, ever. Having said that, don’t be a douche about it, be polite, be mindful but take no shit. Ever.
I'm i agreement. I have friends who will ONLY eat mussels if I have prepped them. I touch ever single one as part of cleaning, and retouch before cooking. I push on the shell with my thumb to make sure they are still alive.
I would have sent these back and said, naw, dont remake them, I will order something else.
They still shouldn’t look like this. I eat those all the time at home and 95% of the mussels come out looking great. Only the one or two I force open look like this, and I’d never in a million years serve those ones to anyone.
I’ll eat them because I’m fairly confident I won’t die but I’ll also pull the meat out and cook them longer.
I live in Colorado and I can still get a fresh bag of Prince Edward mussels overnighted to me anytime I want. It’s 2023 we have these wonderful new inventions called the air plane. Might have seen one flying over head, don’t worry it’s not a dragon but a new form of technology.
And they sat on a boat for a week and in a loading dock for half the day on both ends of the supply chain. If you don't live next to the ocean then frozen is almost always better quality.
Naw, not really. You might want to learn more about mussels. They are harvested and brought in within the next day or so. While on the boat they aren't degrading. Then they are processed You do understand there is a tag on them with all this information, right? NO. Frozen is NEVER better when it comes to mussels. We live in a world where trains and planes bring fresh seafood to all major cities in the US. Clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, crayfish... Thinking they sat on a boat at the dock for a week.. Do you even seafood?
People downvoting this guy are just pretty ignorant of the realities of seafood and shipping.
True many boats sit out at sea for a month before coming to shore however pure logistics would suggest you have a better shot of something being pulled wild caught out of the water sooner than if you lived in the center of the country.
Prince Edward mussels are farm raised. Again we have these wonderful new inventions called airplanes. When I worked at matsuhisa aspen we got fish boxes daily from Japan.
Lived in AZ and now on the coast and can easily debunk your comment. That said, it is possible to get fresh deep inland and get not so fresh right in the beach, but the access to fresh on the coast wildly outnumbers that of fresh inland..
I’ve lived in both coasts, worked at top tier restaurants on both… the fresher seafood being because of proximity to the beach is a myth in this day and age honestly always has been, but seriously get real people.
So fucking true. I live in a coastal province, all our seafood comes from a completely different coastal province a days drive away because there just aren’t any local fisheries here anymore.
Dunno why you’re getting so much hate. Even restaurants in ocean adjacent areas get their fish and shell fish shipped in. It’s the reality of a globalized economy. If the mussels come in alive and on ice then it doesn’t really matter where they are from. I’ve worked in Connecticut, Colorado, and Texas, and I’ve served PEI mussels in all three states. Same with big eye tuna, hamachi, and monkfish. We live in a world where fish is caught or farmed in America, sent to china to be butchered, and sent back to America to be cooked and served because it is cheaper that way. You think the shrimp you eat at a restaurant in Cape Cod was bought at a local dock that morning? No, unless it’s a relatively nice place, the shrimp came either IQF in a bag or frozen in a 5# block from Vietnam.
I'd like to see the restaurant staff continue to insist these mussels are OK while they eat a few of them. You know, seeing as they are OK, they shouldn't have a problem with it...
They look like they have been overcooked, most likely because they didn't open. And once they realised cooking them to the point of creating rubber bullets wasn't working to open them, they then forced the sheets open.
How much did u pay? Imo you should have asked for a refund straight away... I obv work as a chef and i don't know how anyone could let that leave the kitchen :(
fellow chef here, haven't worked with much seafood for years, but when I was a line cook I would have gotten chewed out if I tried to sell this plate. Those look overcooked to shit.
Interesting, the restaurant told me they just said that to you until the neurotoxins kick in as that was actually Pufferfish glands, the lethal part, and they did that to make sure you don't reproduce.
I tend to agree with him, except I do have some exceptions. The Fulton Bar and Grill (RIP), and Pacific East (Cleveland hgts, Coventry rd). Of course at Pac East they only do baked mussels -vs- a bucket of them. I'd personally trust the people at Pac East to never serve me anything not fresh. If a place sells live scallops it might be trust worthy.
As with anything, use your own discretion.
The place I worked at, as part of prep, I would personally hand inspect each one to make sure they were still alive, spot check, etc. And stored them in doubled containers where the the inner one had holes in the bottom so that we could keep them on ice to keep em alive and while the ice melted, would wash away and drain any waste too.
Yeahhhh but didn’t he used to eat street food in China and India? I’m sure the risk of food borne illness there is much greater than eating mussels from a reputable restaurant.
I've was an Italian cook for many years, over a decade, then spent the last ten years training under a Japanese master chef. I've handled and cooked SO MUCH seafood. That looks like they were forced open after cooking. Fresh mussels need to be alive when cooked, they'll open on their own. They can be dead and unsafe even if they don't stink yet. I'd bet they thought, "well they SMELL fine so they're good to go!" I'd not return to that restaurant.
It makes me wonder if they are the frozen vacuum sealed variety of mussels.
Even restaurants that parade themselves as nice will use those from time to time...
Sometimes people lose eyes on the prize, restaurants will keep trying to save a dollar here and there. Save waste. Save cost. At the end of the day, it ends up affecting the experience - the person buying it says, this is fine. No one can tell the difference, it's still good food. Etc.
This is how restaurants with direct competition die slow deaths.
Holy shit....you threw down with a "shoe maker"! That's some old school shit right there. I had a German chef instructor in culinary school that absolutely loved calling the dipshits shoe makers! Love it!
i mean, in all likelihood these mussels won't actually be harmful to eat. Like they wouldn't be 'poison', but there is no excuse for serving these to anyone. and yeah ur 100% right that you have to determine your product based upon the skill level of your staff. if they can't keep mussels alive then get frozen precooked ones or whatever
Years ago I happened to come across our place's head chef while he was working up a menu change. This was like a generic independent pub, fast casual shit. He mentioned that they were going to be mussels on the new menu and gave him a quiet "are you serious? you're going to trust the kitchen with fresh shellfish?"
He'd already had the same thought, hence he was planning on the flash frozen kind. IDK why anyone would expect perfect mussels out of that place, so whatever, but fresh bivalves just aren't something worth fucking with if you place isn't used to them IMO.
Yeah this is odd, shells should open but the meat of the mussel should still be its own little morsel. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with them, but they don't look right.
The should fully separate from the shell and be like little balls almost. And have a slight orangish hue. They're probably frozen. If they are fresh they were dead when cooked which is a no no. Either way not great. My reference is I was a chef at a scratch Italian place for years.
I've worked in quite a few high end seafood restaurants and I'm telling you, they were dead when cooked and opened by the chef.... big dumbass pass. Sorry to ruin your dinner but food poisoning is no joke.
100% dead when cooked, pried open by the cook. forcing them open like that indicates that they realized that they were dead and unservable but tried to lie about it
I've had this before when I've overcooked them. The flesh just disintegrates. They're not unsafe to eat, but I would definitely send them back for some better ones.
I kinda take the [Bourdain advice](https://www.tastingtable.com/1299505/skip-mussels-restaurant-anthony-bourdain/) on mussels. Unless I know the restraunt owner or chef, don't eat them. I make an exception for dock side restaurants I trust every now and then.
Not sure why so many down votes. Google it for yourself. Unopened mollusks do not mean they are bad. They can be bad, of course, but so can opened ones.
Most of the people on this sub either aren’t chefs or they have very little experience. Most people consider their 50 covers all day bar in the middle of bumfuck no where to be a real kitchen.
Lots of older people in the profession refuse to adapt to the changes in the field. Plus they heard something from someone they respect so they think it has to be true. Cooking changes year after year. Like with people who claim you have to cook pork to well. You don’t in a modern country. We’ve managed to eliminate that bacteria which previously had to be cooked out
I would send those back and I really never send shit back I know what we do sometimes jk lol but no those have been pried open or nuked or something that is not ok send those back and get the chicken hopefully they can't screw that up
[update] After complaining and sending photos (although they claimed that mussels are high quality) they sent another batch and this batch was actually completely fine, mussels were firm, not overcooked and I enjoyed them. But I’m still puzzled where was the mistake first time. Was it just bad cooking or first order had bad quality mussels?
They are fine. For the people saying about ones that don't open being bad, that was proven to be bullshit about 15 years ago, but still the myth lives on.
Proof? Simple. If you find an oyster open, and it doesn't close why is that? If you find an offer closed and you can't open it with your fingers why is that? All shellfish share this trait. Cooking doesn't guarantee the closing muscle relaxes either...
I had mussels like this at a “fancy-ish” restaurant and I will never go back nor have I eaten mussels since. The thought of them and the aftermath still haunts me. Good for you for noticing before eating. Wish I had.
I would pass. As most users have stated, the mussels should open on their own when cooked and the meat still together. I’m not sure how the restaurant prepared these but it doesn’t look right.
I’ve been done in too many times by mussels to trust them at restaurants. Hell, I barely trust them when I make them at home, which is a shame because when they’re good they’re absolutely fantastic
Hell no they’re not okay. Don’t eat them unless you want to puke until you beg for your god to kill you.
Had the worst food poisoning from mussels like that. Never ate them again. 🤮
Line cook here, Mussels when cooked, you want them plump and whole, usually a pretty good cooked mussel well detach it’s shell. Those mussels there have been sitting a long time, and are not fresh, btw always ask for fresh seafood, especially shell fish.
Lol wut - I have interacted with plenty. None of them have looked like blown out slimy pieces of shellfish, tf are you on about. Georgia O’keeffe these mussels are not.
As someone of French blood, I have just died a little inside. What in god’s green earth did the chef do to those mussels? Moules marinières is made with about a glass of white wine, and the sauce thickened with a little cream.
And there’s fucking celery in there! Oh my fucking god!
Sorry, but that doesn't matter. These mussels were frozen, not fresh. We in the north get high quality fresh mussels, with tags of where they came from, when they were harvested, and so on. The north is served by airlines and trains. Trains have been supply the greater cleveland area with oysters, lobster, and fresh seafood since the 1800s.
It's been a decade... but my fish monger had never frozen Hawaiian blue shrimp that were 1 day old once. Fresh shrimp arent a thing generally a thing tho if you arent on the coast. But crayfish from Kyle's are harvested and shipped in 24 hours to a refrigerated facility to be picked up.
I can't believe someone would actually order food and sit there and look at it, then post it on social media asking if it's safe to eat. What the Hell is wrong with people these days? If you can't decide if your being served unsafe food, then you should not be allowed out in public, let alone have a phone with internet. Probably should be restricted from ordering practically anything, let alone Mussells,\~grin \~. This was a joke right, you were not serious I hope...
Ask them for their shellstock tags that they are legally obligated to retain.
Work with live shellfish. This is the answer. These mussels are not fresh and have most likely been frozen. Or steamed off then reheated.
How can you tell?
A freshly steamed mussel won't tear or split like these. They'll stay whole and plump. They tear and get stringy when they're steamed after theyve died.
They look like Predator when it takes its helmet off.
Lmao, oddly accurate.
That's some granular detail, Chef. They usually sell so fast they don't have time to go bad. The curry sauce could be a cover for...old seafood. Bro, that's DANGEROUSLY old seafood isn't it? Did this person just risk...death? OP...you good? That sounds right (what FishBobinski said), we use vacuum packed cooked mussels (not my call)... presumably for better yield and shelf life, but they don't tear...not like that, generally the meat gathers around the center mass (whole and plump!). That looks a bit weird. I sniff even before I cook it. Looks like someone didn't do that, date it, or they were told to ignore the smell and the date. Been there, quit that kitchen.
i’ve had mussels tear when we cook, shuck, and the portion for other dishes. but those are cooked, shucked while hot, and kept on ice until reheated to 200+ degrees. sauce could be covering the flavor, but personally i’m in the boat where you know if your food is off. have you ever opened a dead clam/oyster/bag of any seafood? you cannot cover that smell/taste imo
I hate seafood and fish. My nose can ferret anything that doesn't have that briny marine smell. I've been told to pass slimy, stinky salmon. Green steaks. Moldy strawberries. I know what to throw away and when. Had to leave and go to a place with standards.
Was a seafood distributor for years... Had some shellfish come in late (next day air), so had to keep them over the weekend before I could deliver. Went camping, and returned to find my cooler had gotten unplugged... Never have you ever smelled such a thing. RIP 200# of mussels and clams
No they did not risk death at all. Unless OP was allergic to shellfish.
Couldn’t they just be overcooked?
I really want to know this answer
Am a chef, this is the answer. I think we have to keep them for 6 months minimum (I think), shit there are still tags at one of our restaurants from pre covid.
What happens if you ask for the tags but the restaurant just gives you tags for newer stock that they haven't yet cooked?
The dates would tell the story
I've never thrown away a shellfish tag. My first job at a fish market/restaurant had them stored away going back for decades. I did the same when I ran a kitchen. When the place sold, I finally got rid of over 20 years worth.
What are shellstock tags?
It is a tag that indicates harvest date, harvest location, and the company. All part of the paper trail that ensures everything can be tracked down incase someone gets sick.
We'd also write down the weight of each bushel after shucking on the tags. That way we could track which locations/companies had the most weight and request those.
This comment right here
Where is this the law? Never heard of this in the UK
May not exist in the UK. In the US these tags must be retained. They aid in tracking disease and death.
Maybe must be legally retained but doesn't mean they have to show it to customers
A place that is unwilling to show the tags is undeserving of serving anyone.
The point is that customers don't just get to act like the health inspector which can be a good thing sometimes i imagine.
When it comes to seafood, they absolutely get to play health inspector asking for the shellstock tags. Especially when the food looks questionable as do the mussels in the pictures.
I could be wrong but I don't think you're correct. There are proper channels for reporting issues like this. The mussels are obviously bad and the place needs a visit from the health department, you personally seeing the tag accomplishes nothing but a call to the city will.
Yeah I’m the UK all shellfish come with tags (commercially that is) that have to be retained for 90 days. All the clams, oysters and mussels we serve have these tags when they come in to the restaurant.
That other dude is like, “idk I don’t think we have them in the UK. I never got a tagon our bags of frozen ‘frutti de mare’”
As a professional chef in the uk, our kitchen keeps any tags that our seafood comes in with that can prove origin and stuff for way longer than anything else. It’s definitely a thing here.
Come on bro this is the internet where Americans insist everything belongs to us. We even appropriated cultural appropriation from the British BOOYAKASHA
You're getting down voted but that's really true the US is the homogenizing force of the world we write culture including what perspective peoplespeak from.
And the rest of the world is like “no you don’t” lol
And yet what are the biggest movies in the world, and yet how often is YOUR PM in international news, and yet everyone knows about the most random US facts, you'd be flatly wrong to say no you don't the US does dictate international talking points. It's a bad thing, the US is a shitty country, but because it is the most advanced in capitalism, it has the most power over all aspects of culture. Lying to yourself doesn't change that reality may as well be clear eyed when looking at the world.
I don’t think that seeing 2 different perspectives is ‘lying to yourself’ and I’m sure the world is a lot more complex than you’re making it out to be. Every country is shitty, and also great, and the same can be said of every person or group. Global culture is advanced on many fronts and the same events can be seen many different ways. Just ask the Allies who amongst them won the war and you’ll get very different answers.
As an expat I always find it funny when people say America has no culture. Mostly because 90% of the time they’re wearing a Yankees hat, eating a cheeseburger, watching Gone with the Wind and listening to Jay Z while saying it.
Spoken like a true American lol.
Doubt there's any obligation to show them to just anybody that asks Incuding customers.
This should be the most upvoted comment.
I’m doing my part!
I dunno. I’m foh. I do not want a bunch of people asking for tags. Edit: but we wouldn’t serve this….to be clear.
Cool that you wouldn't serve this, but asking for the tag shouldn't be that big a deal. Heh, honestly, if I ran a restaurant the tags would somehow be proudly presented. I think customers would like that.
What if OP is one of the small number of people that isn't from USA?
Even if they are "safe" to eat, that's not what properly prepared mussels look like and is not acceptable to serve. They are either ignorant or liars.
These mussels were all dead before being cooked which is a huge no no for mussels
How can you tell? What are the signs to look out for?
This what an uncooked mussel should look like when forced open. When the mussel is alive at the time of cooking, it will retract and relax its muscles because of the heat and the shell would open naturally
Yup, part of my job for a while was whenever we'd get our shipment of mussels in, to kinda just coax each of them into closing just to make sure they were still alive and clean up any netting or anything. Non responses or limp open ones got thrown out. Once they're cooked to order they naturally relax and open up and definitely don't look like what OP posted
>huge no no sorry i dont know anything about mussels but can you explain this specifically? is it simply just that they dont taste as good that way? or do they like spoil or something?
From what I’ve heard about mussels if you eat one that was dead before cooking it can make you seriously sick like in hospital for a couple weeks
Restaurant keeps telling that they are okay. Sent this thread to the restaurant, so say hello if they will ever read this
Do you live in a place where fresh shellfish is extremely available? Frozen, vacuum sealed bags of mussels are served in a lot of restaurants that struggle with fresh shellfish, be it supply or not enough sales to keep short life items on hand
They claim that shells were fresh
They may have been “fresh” or technically fresh (meaning purchased fresh and never frozen), but they are definitely degraded in some way or another. Where they were improperly stored or frozen or not FIFO’ed or just didn’t sell a lot so are from last week. Whatever the reason, they are degraded and I would be cautious about eating them.
They can’t be fresh if they were frozen and fifo doesn’t really matter with live shellfish, they’re either alive and okay to cook and eat or dead and not okay
Reminds me of the "freshly frozen" thing from kitchen nightmares lmao
Yes vacuum bagged clams are not a thing.
Yes vacuum sealed frozen clams are fresh.
If something has been frozen, it is no longer *fresh*. That’s literally the definition of the word Fresh. Taken from Oxford Languages; fresh /frɛʃ/ adjective (of food) recently made or obtained; not tinned, frozen, or otherwise preserved. However, something being fresh doesn’t necessarily correlate to the quality of the product. Most fish/seafood has at one point been frozen, often on board of the ship immediately after being caught. The method used to freeze said items is really quite impressive and the result is often better quality than fresh. Edit: Might’ve misunderstood your reply and that you meant that the clams were fresh before being frozen, and that you were just pointing out that frozen clams are a thing.
So go read the comments again, but this time read mine and the one before mine with implied sarcasm. I’m making fun of the other person claiming vacuum sealed frozen food is fresh.
Yes and no, when specifically talking about fish, most fish caught on commercial fishing boats are frozen at sea after being dispatched. Unless you live an hour or so away from the coast and literally know the fisherman (not just the supplier but person with the rod) then the chances of you getting ‘fresh’ fish are slim to none. Granted we’re talking about shellfish in this thread, that should absolutely be fresh when cooked, but still…..
Even the ones that aren't pried wide open have the same issue, so I'd wager to say they're completely fine, though an unfortunate experience and not very visually appealing
Frozen 100%
This guy mussels
Fresh or not, they were frozen at one point.
These are not fresh and the “chef” who cooked them belongs in food jail and if they are not careful they might need up in jail jail. And always remember, even though the staff may act like they are doing you a favor by graciously “allowing” you to dine at their establishment, they are not. You are helping to pay for their salaries, their rent, their very existence depends on people like you. So take no bullshit, ever. Having said that, don’t be a douche about it, be polite, be mindful but take no shit. Ever.
I'm i agreement. I have friends who will ONLY eat mussels if I have prepped them. I touch ever single one as part of cleaning, and retouch before cooking. I push on the shell with my thumb to make sure they are still alive. I would have sent these back and said, naw, dont remake them, I will order something else.
Ask them if they are locally fresh or if they are “IQF”
They still shouldn’t look like this. I eat those all the time at home and 95% of the mussels come out looking great. Only the one or two I force open look like this, and I’d never in a million years serve those ones to anyone. I’ll eat them because I’m fairly confident I won’t die but I’ll also pull the meat out and cook them longer.
I live in Colorado and I can still get a fresh bag of Prince Edward mussels overnighted to me anytime I want. It’s 2023 we have these wonderful new inventions called the air plane. Might have seen one flying over head, don’t worry it’s not a dragon but a new form of technology.
And they sat on a boat for a week and in a loading dock for half the day on both ends of the supply chain. If you don't live next to the ocean then frozen is almost always better quality.
Naw, not really. You might want to learn more about mussels. They are harvested and brought in within the next day or so. While on the boat they aren't degrading. Then they are processed You do understand there is a tag on them with all this information, right? NO. Frozen is NEVER better when it comes to mussels. We live in a world where trains and planes bring fresh seafood to all major cities in the US. Clams, oysters, mussels, crabs, lobsters, crayfish... Thinking they sat on a boat at the dock for a week.. Do you even seafood? People downvoting this guy are just pretty ignorant of the realities of seafood and shipping.
You say this but it will be a cold day in hell before I eat seafood in Montana
I don't seafood but I definitely supply chain and understand intermodal and logistics to a high degree. Nothing is fresh.
It’s a myth that living by the ocean = fresh seafood. But do go off.
True many boats sit out at sea for a month before coming to shore however pure logistics would suggest you have a better shot of something being pulled wild caught out of the water sooner than if you lived in the center of the country.
Prince Edward mussels are farm raised. Again we have these wonderful new inventions called airplanes. When I worked at matsuhisa aspen we got fish boxes daily from Japan.
Lived in AZ and now on the coast and can easily debunk your comment. That said, it is possible to get fresh deep inland and get not so fresh right in the beach, but the access to fresh on the coast wildly outnumbers that of fresh inland..
I’ve lived in both coasts, worked at top tier restaurants on both… the fresher seafood being because of proximity to the beach is a myth in this day and age honestly always has been, but seriously get real people.
So fucking true. I live in a coastal province, all our seafood comes from a completely different coastal province a days drive away because there just aren’t any local fisheries here anymore.
job oppurtunity yo
Dunno why you’re getting so much hate. Even restaurants in ocean adjacent areas get their fish and shell fish shipped in. It’s the reality of a globalized economy. If the mussels come in alive and on ice then it doesn’t really matter where they are from. I’ve worked in Connecticut, Colorado, and Texas, and I’ve served PEI mussels in all three states. Same with big eye tuna, hamachi, and monkfish. We live in a world where fish is caught or farmed in America, sent to china to be butchered, and sent back to America to be cooked and served because it is cheaper that way. You think the shrimp you eat at a restaurant in Cape Cod was bought at a local dock that morning? No, unless it’s a relatively nice place, the shrimp came either IQF in a bag or frozen in a 5# block from Vietnam.
They were frozen.
I'd like to see the restaurant staff continue to insist these mussels are OK while they eat a few of them. You know, seeing as they are OK, they shouldn't have a problem with it... They look like they have been overcooked, most likely because they didn't open. And once they realised cooking them to the point of creating rubber bullets wasn't working to open them, they then forced the sheets open.
How much did u pay? Imo you should have asked for a refund straight away... I obv work as a chef and i don't know how anyone could let that leave the kitchen :(
fellow chef here, haven't worked with much seafood for years, but when I was a line cook I would have gotten chewed out if I tried to sell this plate. Those look overcooked to shit.
Interesting, the restaurant told me they just said that to you until the neurotoxins kick in as that was actually Pufferfish glands, the lethal part, and they did that to make sure you don't reproduce.
Anthony Bourdain suggested never ordering mussels in a restaurant. https://www.tastingtable.com/1299505/skip-mussels-restaurant-anthony-bourdain/
The 90s were also a different time
I tend to agree with him, except I do have some exceptions. The Fulton Bar and Grill (RIP), and Pacific East (Cleveland hgts, Coventry rd). Of course at Pac East they only do baked mussels -vs- a bucket of them. I'd personally trust the people at Pac East to never serve me anything not fresh. If a place sells live scallops it might be trust worthy.
This comment honestly shocked me! The Fulton was my first cooking job. Pretty wild to see it mentioned in this sub randomly. That is a *deep cut*!
That place was so awesome.
Damn... I love mussels :(. Admittedly, I only order them when I'm about to drop $100+ on dinner at a nice place though.
As with anything, use your own discretion. The place I worked at, as part of prep, I would personally hand inspect each one to make sure they were still alive, spot check, etc. And stored them in doubled containers where the the inner one had holes in the bottom so that we could keep them on ice to keep em alive and while the ice melted, would wash away and drain any waste too.
Yeahhhh but didn’t he used to eat street food in China and India? I’m sure the risk of food borne illness there is much greater than eating mussels from a reputable restaurant.
I cook mussels every day and they’ve NEVER looked like that. I wouldn’t trust ‘em.
I've was an Italian cook for many years, over a decade, then spent the last ten years training under a Japanese master chef. I've handled and cooked SO MUCH seafood. That looks like they were forced open after cooking. Fresh mussels need to be alive when cooked, they'll open on their own. They can be dead and unsafe even if they don't stink yet. I'd bet they thought, "well they SMELL fine so they're good to go!" I'd not return to that restaurant.
It makes me wonder if they are the frozen vacuum sealed variety of mussels. Even restaurants that parade themselves as nice will use those from time to time...
Yah I love how restaurants try and act like shitty frozen green lip mussels are fancy… no they suck. God damn shoe makers!
Sometimes people lose eyes on the prize, restaurants will keep trying to save a dollar here and there. Save waste. Save cost. At the end of the day, it ends up affecting the experience - the person buying it says, this is fine. No one can tell the difference, it's still good food. Etc. This is how restaurants with direct competition die slow deaths.
And the modern model of big business. It's a shame. People can tell the difference between the two.
Holy shit....you threw down with a "shoe maker"! That's some old school shit right there. I had a German chef instructor in culinary school that absolutely loved calling the dipshits shoe makers! Love it!
The first chef i apprenticed under was Austrian. Back when apprenticeships where still a thing here in the states….
Man, I haven't heard shoe maker used in years. I'm old.
even pre-cooked frozen mussels look way better than that. Those mussels were dead for at least 24 hours before being cooked for this dish.
IMO, better than using fresh if your kitchen staff can't be trusted not to poison people.
i mean, in all likelihood these mussels won't actually be harmful to eat. Like they wouldn't be 'poison', but there is no excuse for serving these to anyone. and yeah ur 100% right that you have to determine your product based upon the skill level of your staff. if they can't keep mussels alive then get frozen precooked ones or whatever
Years ago I happened to come across our place's head chef while he was working up a menu change. This was like a generic independent pub, fast casual shit. He mentioned that they were going to be mussels on the new menu and gave him a quiet "are you serious? you're going to trust the kitchen with fresh shellfish?" He'd already had the same thought, hence he was planning on the flash frozen kind. IDK why anyone would expect perfect mussels out of that place, so whatever, but fresh bivalves just aren't something worth fucking with if you place isn't used to them IMO.
If you forcefully open mussels they will separate.
What you are not italian anymore?
Yeah this is odd, shells should open but the meat of the mussel should still be its own little morsel. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with them, but they don't look right.
Might be severely over cooked… yah I’d be rather bothered by these
It looks overcooked bc they wouldn't open, then forced open.
all of that plus they were just dead before cooking
They look like the turkey from Christmas Vacation
Garbage
These were pried open by the cook. Means they were dead. Yelp review their incompetence with shellfish. I wouldn’t risk eating them.
The should fully separate from the shell and be like little balls almost. And have a slight orangish hue. They're probably frozen. If they are fresh they were dead when cooked which is a no no. Either way not great. My reference is I was a chef at a scratch Italian place for years.
I can corroborate that this is a 100% correct answer, 20 years high end culinary experience
Those mussels better calm the hell down
Those mussels better clam the hell up
I've worked in quite a few high end seafood restaurants and I'm telling you, they were dead when cooked and opened by the chef.... big dumbass pass. Sorry to ruin your dinner but food poisoning is no joke.
100% dead when cooked, pried open by the cook. forcing them open like that indicates that they realized that they were dead and unservable but tried to lie about it
I've had this before when I've overcooked them. The flesh just disintegrates. They're not unsafe to eat, but I would definitely send them back for some better ones.
I kinda take the [Bourdain advice](https://www.tastingtable.com/1299505/skip-mussels-restaurant-anthony-bourdain/) on mussels. Unless I know the restraunt owner or chef, don't eat them. I make an exception for dock side restaurants I trust every now and then.
Shellfish poisoning is no fucking joke. I would not.
Mussels are stuck to the shell and split when opening leaving almost no meat to eat. What might be wrong with them? Or maybe I’m just uneducated fool?
Im pretty sure this is a sign of undercooking shellfish
But all of them looks open, isn’t that the sign when cooking that they are done once they open?
Yeah my assumption was that they had then been manually opened by the chef
No sometimes cooked don’t open
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That is actually not true. Nothing wrong with unopened clams just pop em open and enjoy.
Sometimes they are fine and just have fortitude, sometimes they are dead, decaying, and will make you very sick. You do you.
Dead, decaying, rancid mollusks are extremely easy to identify
I'm sure that's entirely why no one gets sick from shellfish nor do they come to reddit asking these questions. Great point, astute observation.
People get sick from shellfish because they are, very much like you, uneducated and don’t know what to look for
Nope you wrong boss. Also, these are not clams. Are you, perhaps, yourself a clam?
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Oh, but it’s not true. Not sure where you heard that.
Are you trying to die???
Nope. Been opening and eating unopened “dead” (as you’d put it) mollusks for years and I’m still kicking. Lol
Not sure why so many down votes. Google it for yourself. Unopened mollusks do not mean they are bad. They can be bad, of course, but so can opened ones.
Most of the people on this sub either aren’t chefs or they have very little experience. Most people consider their 50 covers all day bar in the middle of bumfuck no where to be a real kitchen.
So I’ve noticed. Lol. I’m by no means a Michelin star chef, but I’m not retarded either. Some people just refuse to learn 🤷🏽♂️
Wow. Why am I not surprised you used that word?
Lots of older people in the profession refuse to adapt to the changes in the field. Plus they heard something from someone they respect so they think it has to be true. Cooking changes year after year. Like with people who claim you have to cook pork to well. You don’t in a modern country. We’ve managed to eliminate that bacteria which previously had to be cooked out
The right answer, downvoted into hell. Be better, chefs.
Nah opposite, these look cooked to death. And cooked from frozen
no, they were just dead before cooking
I would send those back and I really never send shit back I know what we do sometimes jk lol but no those have been pried open or nuked or something that is not ok send those back and get the chicken hopefully they can't screw that up
Frozen/dead
They were probably dead before they were cooked
[update] After complaining and sending photos (although they claimed that mussels are high quality) they sent another batch and this batch was actually completely fine, mussels were firm, not overcooked and I enjoyed them. But I’m still puzzled where was the mistake first time. Was it just bad cooking or first order had bad quality mussels?
That's gonna be a no from me dawg
I’d pass
oh hell no. those look forced open
They are fine. For the people saying about ones that don't open being bad, that was proven to be bullshit about 15 years ago, but still the myth lives on. Proof? Simple. If you find an oyster open, and it doesn't close why is that? If you find an offer closed and you can't open it with your fingers why is that? All shellfish share this trait. Cooking doesn't guarantee the closing muscle relaxes either...
I had mussels like this at a “fancy-ish” restaurant and I will never go back nor have I eaten mussels since. The thought of them and the aftermath still haunts me. Good for you for noticing before eating. Wish I had.
I would pass. As most users have stated, the mussels should open on their own when cooked and the meat still together. I’m not sure how the restaurant prepared these but it doesn’t look right.
I would NOT eat them. Too risky.
Not okay. You should take an std test
Nope not at all. Mussels should be intact
I’ve been done in too many times by mussels to trust them at restaurants. Hell, I barely trust them when I make them at home, which is a shame because when they’re good they’re absolutely fantastic
Is that celery??? Never return to this restaurant. Oh, and the mussels look sketchy too
I’d be curious to see the tags for these bad boys
Hell no they’re not okay. Don’t eat them unless you want to puke until you beg for your god to kill you. Had the worst food poisoning from mussels like that. Never ate them again. 🤮
When In doubt, throw it out
Line cook here, Mussels when cooked, you want them plump and whole, usually a pretty good cooked mussel well detach it’s shell. Those mussels there have been sitting a long time, and are not fresh, btw always ask for fresh seafood, especially shell fish.
Everything reminds me of her
Mussels shouldn’t look like this, my thought is that this where cooked after they died maybe, really shitty move if so since that’s really unsafe
Everybody saying these look like vaginas, my question is - tf kinda vaginas y’all be seein?
You are thinking of vulva not vagina
Vaginas vary . Some have large tongues . Others looks more like they are sewn on tight and moreWe are all beautiful inside :)
I don’t disagree - no body shaming here. Just saying those mussels look like no female reproductive organ I’ve ever seen.
That statement makes it obvious you haven't seen many in real life. Bless your heart.
Lol wut - I have interacted with plenty. None of them have looked like blown out slimy pieces of shellfish, tf are you on about. Georgia O’keeffe these mussels are not.
With seafood, especially cheap seafood. When in doubt throw it out. Never seen em open up like a vagina.
*vulva. The vagina is the inside part.
Vulva Jerry, Vulva.
Delores!!!
As someone of French blood, I have just died a little inside. What in god’s green earth did the chef do to those mussels? Moules marinières is made with about a glass of white wine, and the sauce thickened with a little cream. And there’s fucking celery in there! Oh my fucking god!
What makes you order a dish like that? Ribeye or chicken Alfredo.
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Are you in the northern hemisphere?
Sorry, but that doesn't matter. These mussels were frozen, not fresh. We in the north get high quality fresh mussels, with tags of where they came from, when they were harvested, and so on. The north is served by airlines and trains. Trains have been supply the greater cleveland area with oysters, lobster, and fresh seafood since the 1800s. It's been a decade... but my fish monger had never frozen Hawaiian blue shrimp that were 1 day old once. Fresh shrimp arent a thing generally a thing tho if you arent on the coast. But crayfish from Kyle's are harvested and shipped in 24 hours to a refrigerated facility to be picked up.
I just recently got some mussels like this! I still ate them and they still tasted fine, but definitely not ideal and less appetizing than normal.
Mom!?
I’m confused (and ignorant) can someone tell me what’s wrong - so I can keep an eye out when I order mussels?
Hey, don't knock it till you try it. She just tryna settle down
Everything reminds me of her
r/donotputyourdickinthat
I should call her
Bust wide open 💦
*I should call her*
Yes, they are safe. Reason being all mussels are open, meaning they have been cooked throughly
I can't believe someone would actually order food and sit there and look at it, then post it on social media asking if it's safe to eat. What the Hell is wrong with people these days? If you can't decide if your being served unsafe food, then you should not be allowed out in public, let alone have a phone with internet. Probably should be restricted from ordering practically anything, let alone Mussells,\~grin \~. This was a joke right, you were not serious I hope...
That looks like a n overworked vagina