Hunting Razor Clams

[Northern Boy]

How do all.

My wife and I made our first UK wild food foraging expedition a couple of weeks ago; out on the Gower Peninsula tracking down Razor Clams. We discovered there is quite an art to it. After ascending a steep learning curve we were able to procure enough for dinner. We originally followed online and written instructions from the likes of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall but discovered that their technique had been improved upon by the chinese clammers we watched (and ripped off).

The video link below should explain the process. The audio is a little fuzzy so here's a basic set of instructions;

All you will need
Old washing up liquid bottle
Salt
Bucket

1. Locate a shallow sandy beach upon which numerous razor clam shells can be seen.
2. Identify a day when there is a very, very low tide (BBC website has tide tables for the whole country).
3. Take an old washing up liquid bottle and fill it with seawater. Then add more salt until no more will dissolve
4. Descend to the waters edge and locate a likely looking "clam hole. This is the tricky part. You will see some in the video. They're about the size of a 10p and the clams often spurt water from them.
5. Squirt your saltwater into the hole. This "tricks" the clam into thinking the tide has come back in.
6. ......wait........ no more than a minute. Another squirt after 30s or so will help.
7. The clam should pop up. GRAB IT and hold on, applying firm but even pressure. The clam will fight and pull, but you should be able to ease it out.
8. Place into a bucket of sand-free seawater for a few hrs to allow all the sand contained within the clam to be expelled. Adding flour to the water apparently helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwBfOH_rwZ8

[kit-e-kate]

Thanks! I've fancied trying my luck at razor clam hunting for ages, but never knew quite how to begin. I'll give it a go on my next day off. Is it a seasonal thing? : )

[Carltonian Man]

That's great, thanks for sharing the film and technique NB. I've tried collecting a few times using plain salt not in solution but unfortunately always drew a blank.
Can I ask, once cooked did you eat the whole thing (not the shell of course) or just the muscle/foot. I've bought razor clams a few times from a fishmonger but didn't want to risk purging them for sand because although live they were already showing signs of slow reaction and limpness.

Regards
Martin

[Northern Boy]

Unfortunately we were a little lax with the purging and so there was still a lot of sand inside. We pretty much ate anything that wasn't loaded with sand. The foot formed the majority of it. What we didn't eat I used for fishing bait the next day.

As far as I know, there is no real season for razor clams, but tides are obviously very important. The biggest (ie: highest and lowest) tides of this year will be the weekend of Sept 19/20, so thats the best time to get 'em!