THE MYTH MUSSELS YOU CAN’T EAT THAT STAY CLOSED AFTER COOKING

BARNEY SAYS:

Mussels must be alive before cooking to ensure their freshness. You can check this easily – if the shells are open when raw, they should close when tapped or squeezed. Discard those that don’t. Avoid buying a big batch in the fishmongers if lots are open. Advice in the past has been to throw away any mussels that haven’t opened after cooking because they are assumed to be bad. This isn’t true. Any that can easily be opened are fine to eat. However, if the mussel is very tightly closed, then it may still be a little raw and unpleasant. All this opening is hard work, so if you’ve got plenty to eat and one or two are still closed, there’s nothing wrong with discarding and moving onto the next.