On 5/9/2012 9:11 PM, David Campbell wrote:

> The Parmalee and Bogan Tennessee mussel book quotes from the diary of
> a hungry Confederate soldier who tried cooking some unionids.  It
> sounds suspiciously as though he and his buddies overcooked them on
> the first try and then kept cooking them more to see if it would help.
>   It didn't.  However, the large
> middens suggest that Native Americans had figured out a way to consume
> them, and unionoids do turn up in native markets in some parts of the
> world.

* when asked about the edibility of Unionids, I always say that if you
have a recipe that calls for latex, you can freely substitute Unionids.

However, in 2009 -
http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.ca/2009/09/14-september-2009-1806-waypoint-16.html
- at Lac de la Vieille, north of Ottawa, our assistant Adam Zieleman
insisted on cooking up a sample of relatively small fast-growing
Elliptio complanata.

His key to cooking the Elliptios was to scrub the shells very well with
a scouring pad to remove all of the algae and dirt, then soak in clean
water, and repeat. He imagined that they would just taste like mud if
the mud and algae were not mostly removed. He added garlic and italian
seasoning (as opposed to tex mex which was the only other spice option
on that expedition) in the clean water used to eventually boil the
Elliptios after thoroughly cleaning. After the shells opened, he served
them on a plate and served with a sauce that was tomato-based with
garlic and onions and whatever else was on hand. These were quite palatable.

fred
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          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
          South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
          http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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