How to Cook with Canned Clams (2024)

FAQs

What's the best way to eat canned clams? ›

Canned clams are convenient, shelf-stable, and budget-friendly, making them a great alternative to their fresh counterparts. Plus, these canned shellfish actually come pre-cooked. That means that you can throw them into recipes or eat them plain without having to do any additional boiling or steaming on your part.

This is especially important when adding canned clams to recipes with other salty ingredients, such as bacon or cheese. Rinsing allows for better control over the overall salinity of the dish, ensuring a more balanced flavor profile.

If fresh clams are unavailable (or you're running short on time), substitute two 10-ounce cans of baby clams and 6 cups of bottled clam juice.

Some brands offer clams packed in natural juices with minimal added salt. In such cases, rinsing may not be necessary at all, as the clams already have a balanced flavor. Instead, cooks can simply drain the clams from their liquid and incorporate them directly into their recipes.

A dark, inky blackening may occur in canned clam products when the dark "stomach" or body mass is not removed in can- ning.

Canned clams are already perfectly cooked, so adding them to favorite meals helps get dinner on the table quickly. Potassium – Helps counter the effects of sodium in the diet. A 3-ounce serving has about 125 milligrams.

The Food and Drug Administration found a sample of canned clams contained 20,000 parts per trillion, or ppt, of PFOA, one of the most common members of the class of toxic forever chemicals known as PFAS. All ten samples of clams tested had high levels of PFAS and are considered likely to be a health concern by the FDA.

Overcooking canned clams can make them rubbery and tough. It's best to add them to your dish just a few minutes before it finishes cooking so they can gently heat through without becoming chewy. If you're making a soup or stew, add the clams towards the end of the cooking process.

Clams can easily overcook once opened, leaving them chewy and shriveled. To ensure perfectly cooked clams, remove each clam as it opens and hold them in a plate-covered bowl, where they'll stay warm while the rest of the clams finish cooking.

Can I use the juice from a can of clams? ›

Both Kenji and Daniel have recommended using clam juice in a number of recipes—as a liquid base for salmon chowder or clam chowder, as part of the poaching liquid for fish cooked à la nage, or to add extra shellfish flavor to shrimp fra diavolo.

And there are typically 200-300 clams (yellow clam species) in each can, so there will be a'plenty to go around… if you really, really have to share. Dig into our recipes for more.

Even though they're pre-cooked, these are not necessarily the cleanest mollusks you can buy. Sometimes, canned clams can still contain dirt or grit from the ocean. Running them under cold water can help remove any of these impurities from your food.

The Food and Drug Administration found a sample of canned clams contained 20,000 parts per trillion, or ppt, of PFOA, one of the most common members of the class of toxic forever chemicals known as PFAS. All ten samples of clams tested had high levels of PFAS and are considered likely to be a health concern by the FDA.