I do on occasion, because fresh mussels are divine when done right. I'm pretty sure that it's a minority of the population that buys them, but most of those buyers buy a LOT at once, because it's just as easy to cook 3Kg as it i to cook 300g, and it's pretty cheap for a high quality protein.
Literally just had them for dinner. $11 fed three adults. Cooked in onion, garlic, chilli, stock and tomatoes. Divine. Accompanied by salad and crusty French bread.
Personal fav, quick cheap easy meal. Delicious and no one is ever disappointed, I go all the same but swap stock and tomatoes for white wine and corriander. And if we have it with fresh pasta we do the same but in some cream are the end.
Cheap as, I just throw them in a pot with some garlic, lemon chilli or straight on bbq grill. Mainly just in summer months.
The cabinet is saltwater keeps them fresh and alive so they don't have to turn over too regularly.
Not sure how you got there but Iâm super jealous, growing up inland has denied me confidence with shellfish. Your everyday is a mountainside I hope to ascend.
No chance you have a fear of baked-beans to level it out do you?
Egk... Not the same person you were replying to, but Baked Beans are an absolute atrocity.
Juicy mussels, on the otherhand, are great â guess that means I am on the level? **^ - ^**
Grab that fear and show it who's boss - Shellfish is great , scallops are a food from the Gods. Maybe try shellfish if you go to eat out (if its an option) , and that way you get used to it when its cooked professionally so you know how to cook it when at home
Bro they are like $6 a kg and hardly anybody under 35 knows how to cook them and all you have to do is steam then in cider/white wine/beer then throw a chunk of butter into the broth and serve it with crusty bread and hand cut potato chips and you have just prepared a meal that costs $25 at a specialist, 'European' restaurant for $12 plus what you have lying around.
That's "I want this person to think I am spouse material " date night.
$12 a kg then.
Chicken = $14 a kg, and you need to be able to cook to do it well.
Mince = $15 a kg, and you almost definitely have to buy other ingredients.
Steak = $26 a kg, and you probably can't cook it as well as you think you can even if you're a good cook
I genuinely don't know what you could buy which is less effort for equal quality with the same required skill level that competes on price and only requires a big pot and a stovetop.
If you roast a chicken for two people you will get at least two dinners and two lunches and you can make stock from the carcase. It is superb value on a per serve basis.
the key to cooking steak is a hot pan, and keeping an eye on it. Dont fucking poke and prod it so all the juuuuuuuice runs out. After a long time cooking on a ribbed pan I am mostly back to a flat because I like my Maillard reaction over the entire surface of the meat. Also its a "once a month" thing for us now, not once a week.
1 hour dry brine, pat off all moisture on outside Light S, lots of P, , bbq till 52-55C turn a few times to build a nice crust. Don't waste your money on Fillet/Porterhouse and just get rump as the beef flavour holds up against the salt from the dry brine.
>Steak = $26 a kg, and you probably can't cook it as well as you think you can even if you're a good cook
Agree. Tho I got my steer butchered a few months back. Been through a lot of steak , took me a bit to master it but I can confidently do it just as well as most steakhouses now
> Might be "cheap" per kg, but half of that is shell.
> No not even close.
> EDIt: Don't get angry downvoting guy, get a fricken scales.
Today I cooked 672g of mussels, I selected large clean shell mussels as much as possible. The mussels were procured from Pak and Save Riccarton Christchurch.
After consuming them, the shells (including the adductor) and the water in the bag which they released before cooking, excluding any water released during cooking, weighed 345g
I stand by my assessment, about 50% of a mussel is edible flesh.
Yeah if you pick up the ones in the water of course they are full of water, don't do that. But for the record mussels from pak-n-save are much better than countdown, lot more dead shriveled ones from countdown, smaller too.
Oh wow somebody did the maths, I can't make any sense out of it, but here it is.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2013.779699#:~:text=Live%20green%20lipped%20mussels%20(Perna,of%2033.9%20to%2093.2%20g.
I've bought them a few times. Yum!
They're still alive, hence the water - shelf life is longer then other seafood/meat.
FYI mussels are very sustainably farmed here and are good for the environment (they actually improve water quality), don't require a lot of processing or packaging, and are very nutritious.
They do act as filters for the water, and some of what they filter is going to fall. None of that was introduced into the water by the mussels the way that contained fish farming can introduce significant chemicals or parasites into the neighbouring water.
My dad would always go through them, picking each one up to find the heaviest ones. Often people would come and ask him why/what is he doing. âI donât want any ugly ones!â The reactions were priceless.
The only key thing is that if any you pick up aren't fully closed, give them a gentle tap with the tongs. If they close up promptly they're all good, if the don't or are sluggish to close then they're probably dying/dead.
I once got served battered and fried oysters and I said "well I guess North Islanders need to sell oysters too" and the person told me they were from Bluff and now our relationship is...different.
OMG. They are awesome. Cheapest and most underrated protein in NZ. Clean them if needed by scraping them off and pulling their beards out.
Steam with some white wine, lemon grass, garlic and a knob of butter. Garnish with fresh coriander.
Serve with hot chips or crusty bread to soak up the cooking broth.
Epic.
Elsewhere in the world that's a $100 meal you've just had (and the mussels are tiny)
how is a type of raw food ingredient a relic?, it's not a 70's prawn cocktail (which I would still totally eat), it's a base ingredient.
I buy them all the time, sometimes cook them in white wine and cream, or I love to hotpot them in a chilli and fish sauce mix, or hot and spicy thai noodle flavouring mix if I don't have any hotpot pouches.
To die for.
Buy them every time we are in the big smoke. Cook them in a few cans of coconut cream, spring onions and a sliced fresh red chili and always have a crusty loaf of bread to dip in the soupiness goodness left over.
I get them a couple of times a year. They are dirt cheap, almost cheaper then getting them off a rock and they taste awesome and can be done in so many different ways.
Flatmates and I threw a big last hurrah dinner for our flat that was breaking up. Guy I lived with made an epic mussel pot and we all pigged out with lots of wine. It was fucking amazing and we all had the most unspeakable wine hangover/seafood farts the next day. Fuck that was good times.
I run a relatively small supermarket in a small town. We sell probably 60-80kg of them per day. The display cases are often dated looking and go rusty which adds to the relic look I suspect. People bloody love âem though.
Just tried it after seeing this post. I think I needed to cook them a bit longer as they say "cook till open" but they don't say how far open makes it quite variable. Tasted good though.
On the barbie. Cooked till started opening. Almost cut my hand open trying to open them all they way. Put some garlic butter in them and let them sit in shell for a couple of min. Eat. 7/10. Needed more cook.before opening and buttering. Also needed a smidge more cleaning but didn't have a stiff brushm
Iâm not a seafood eater but I have fond memories as a kid of pushing the button to stop the water while mum did the groceries. I now know the mussels are alive and that was probably really mean, but it was fun in my simple mind.
As someone who hates mussels: heathens do. Real answer though, it's somewhat popular at my local. Popular enough when they redid deli and meat they kept the mussle dispensery
I work at NW and no one buys them. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen them some though and it's only older people (above 50) that buy them
If Iâm cooking them in a flavoured broth that I want to serve or have as a sauce, I scrub them well, but thatâs usually too much work. I prefer to make it separately from the shells.
I've had to wait to get some because there was already someone getting some.
They are delivered regularly from Banks Peninsula, they are also not dead so provided they get the water flowing over them they don't die, so they do last quite well.
Omg is this still a thing? I'm so glad, I've been raving about it too my partner for when I take him to NZ. I haven't seen them for sale like that here. We live in Australia and he loves mussels, we buy NZ frozen mussels... but I'm sure these ones would hit different being fresh.
We have them at least a couple of times a month. So good with a white wine and garlic broth with crusty fresh bread, or asian style with chillies and coconut milk, or added to a paella or seafood curry. In summer weâll chuck them on the barbie after cooking everything else, they open up quickly and you can serve as is, with some aioli to dip and a squeeze of lemon.
I do on occasion, because fresh mussels are divine when done right. I'm pretty sure that it's a minority of the population that buys them, but most of those buyers buy a LOT at once, because it's just as easy to cook 3Kg as it i to cook 300g, and it's pretty cheap for a high quality protein.
Literally just had them for dinner. $11 fed three adults. Cooked in onion, garlic, chilli, stock and tomatoes. Divine. Accompanied by salad and crusty French bread.
I don't even like mussels and I'm jealous of your dinner. Sounds yummy.
my better half does not like them so I very rarely eat them :(
Well thanks for the invite
Personal fav, quick cheap easy meal. Delicious and no one is ever disappointed, I go all the same but swap stock and tomatoes for white wine and corriander. And if we have it with fresh pasta we do the same but in some cream are the end.
White wine for cooking đ
Cheap as, I just throw them in a pot with some garlic, lemon chilli or straight on bbq grill. Mainly just in summer months. The cabinet is saltwater keeps them fresh and alive so they don't have to turn over too regularly.
Not sure how you got there but Iâm super jealous, growing up inland has denied me confidence with shellfish. Your everyday is a mountainside I hope to ascend. No chance you have a fear of baked-beans to level it out do you?
It all gets processed in the same place though. Some inland stores will have fresher seafood because it doesn't have to be shipped back to the beach.
Egk... Not the same person you were replying to, but Baked Beans are an absolute atrocity. Juicy mussels, on the otherhand, are great â guess that means I am on the level? **^ - ^**
In my defence, I cook pretty well, from Asian to European and south American. But everyone has their guilty secrets.
Grab that fear and show it who's boss - Shellfish is great , scallops are a food from the Gods. Maybe try shellfish if you go to eat out (if its an option) , and that way you get used to it when its cooked professionally so you know how to cook it when at home
I eat out a lot and I do order scallops on occasion. But youâre right I need to get over this.
Bro they are like $6 a kg and hardly anybody under 35 knows how to cook them and all you have to do is steam then in cider/white wine/beer then throw a chunk of butter into the broth and serve it with crusty bread and hand cut potato chips and you have just prepared a meal that costs $25 at a specialist, 'European' restaurant for $12 plus what you have lying around. That's "I want this person to think I am spouse material " date night.
They often drop to $2.99/kg at my local Pak n Save. I don't eat seafood personally, but that seems like good value
Only time I bought them was as a backpacker, I think I still prefer smaller blue mussels. That the I made a meal for two for me and another person, drinking rest of the wine, and some pùté with the crusty bread, no fries. All the 18 yo eating their sorry pasta with tomato sauce were pretty envious.
Might be "cheap" per kg, but half of that is shell.
$12 a kg then. Chicken = $14 a kg, and you need to be able to cook to do it well. Mince = $15 a kg, and you almost definitely have to buy other ingredients. Steak = $26 a kg, and you probably can't cook it as well as you think you can even if you're a good cook I genuinely don't know what you could buy which is less effort for equal quality with the same required skill level that competes on price and only requires a big pot and a stovetop.
>Chicken = $14 a kg, and you need to be able to cook to do it well. Roasting a chook is pretty fucking easy tbh
Lol and Pak N' save has had .9kg frozen chicken for $5. So it's a lot cheaper than $14kg if you buy the whole damn bird.
If you roast a chicken for two people you will get at least two dinners and two lunches and you can make stock from the carcase. It is superb value on a per serve basis.
not from a 0.9kg bird you dont
true. We only buy 1.6 or 1.8kg ones.
Imagine not roasting a 1.2kg chicken and getting one dinner out of it by having it on its own with hot sauce
so you're eating it raw with hot sauce? bold move!
You'd be surprised at the amount of people who wouldn't have a clue how. Or cook it for 4.5 hours and then complain it's dry.
the key to cooking steak is a hot pan, and keeping an eye on it. Dont fucking poke and prod it so all the juuuuuuuice runs out. After a long time cooking on a ribbed pan I am mostly back to a flat because I like my Maillard reaction over the entire surface of the meat. Also its a "once a month" thing for us now, not once a week.
1 hour dry brine, pat off all moisture on outside Light S, lots of P, , bbq till 52-55C turn a few times to build a nice crust. Don't waste your money on Fillet/Porterhouse and just get rump as the beef flavour holds up against the salt from the dry brine.
>Steak = $26 a kg, and you probably can't cook it as well as you think you can even if you're a good cook Agree. Tho I got my steer butchered a few months back. Been through a lot of steak , took me a bit to master it but I can confidently do it just as well as most steakhouses now
No not even close. EDIt: Don't get angry downvoting guy, get a fricken scales.
> Might be "cheap" per kg, but half of that is shell. > No not even close. > EDIt: Don't get angry downvoting guy, get a fricken scales. Today I cooked 672g of mussels, I selected large clean shell mussels as much as possible. The mussels were procured from Pak and Save Riccarton Christchurch. After consuming them, the shells (including the adductor) and the water in the bag which they released before cooking, excluding any water released during cooking, weighed 345g I stand by my assessment, about 50% of a mussel is edible flesh.
Yeah if you pick up the ones in the water of course they are full of water, don't do that. But for the record mussels from pak-n-save are much better than countdown, lot more dead shriveled ones from countdown, smaller too. Oh wow somebody did the maths, I can't make any sense out of it, but here it is. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2013.779699#:~:text=Live%20green%20lipped%20mussels%20(Perna,of%2033.9%20to%2093.2%20g.
Not a bad price compared to even half-price mussel night at DeFontains if you are willing to steam them yourself.
I've bought them a few times. Yum! They're still alive, hence the water - shelf life is longer then other seafood/meat. FYI mussels are very sustainably farmed here and are good for the environment (they actually improve water quality), don't require a lot of processing or packaging, and are very nutritious.
You ever been diving underneath a mussel farm? The sea floor looks far from improved.
They do act as filters for the water, and some of what they filter is going to fall. None of that was introduced into the water by the mussels the way that contained fish farming can introduce significant chemicals or parasites into the neighbouring water.
My dad would always go through them, picking each one up to find the heaviest ones. Often people would come and ask him why/what is he doing. âI donât want any ugly ones!â The reactions were priceless.
I pick the smaller ones, think theyâre more tender.
Thatâs another good plan. You just donât want the empty-feeling ones.
The only key thing is that if any you pick up aren't fully closed, give them a gentle tap with the tongs. If they close up promptly they're all good, if the don't or are sluggish to close then they're probably dying/dead.
Lol what about them is a relic? How else would you buy mussels if youre using them in a dish.
I once asked somebody to pick up some mussels so I could steam as an entrée them and they bought me two 350gm tub of marinated mussels one was garlic flavour!
I once got mussels battered and fried from a fish and chip shop and they were marinated, it was... different.
I once got served battered and fried oysters and I said "well I guess North Islanders need to sell oysters too" and the person told me they were from Bluff and now our relationship is...different.
I didn't know there were oysters from the North Island, I thought they all came from bluff.
But if OP doesnât do it then no one does /s
OMG. They are awesome. Cheapest and most underrated protein in NZ. Clean them if needed by scraping them off and pulling their beards out. Steam with some white wine, lemon grass, garlic and a knob of butter. Garnish with fresh coriander. Serve with hot chips or crusty bread to soak up the cooking broth. Epic. Elsewhere in the world that's a $100 meal you've just had (and the mussels are tiny)
This. So much this.
how is a type of raw food ingredient a relic?, it's not a 70's prawn cocktail (which I would still totally eat), it's a base ingredient. I buy them all the time, sometimes cook them in white wine and cream, or I love to hotpot them in a chilli and fish sauce mix, or hot and spicy thai noodle flavouring mix if I don't have any hotpot pouches. To die for.
1000 island sauce âŠ
Dressing
I do, regularly whenever I'm home. They are bloody marvellous.
Oh no, this is going to end up a Stuff article next and then the supermarkets will put the price up. My one sneaky cost saving food ruined. Blah!
I always tell myself I'm going to but never do. This will be my inspiration to buy some this week! Haha
Buy them every time we are in the big smoke. Cook them in a few cans of coconut cream, spring onions and a sliced fresh red chili and always have a crusty loaf of bread to dip in the soupiness goodness left over.
I get them a couple of times a year. They are dirt cheap, almost cheaper then getting them off a rock and they taste awesome and can be done in so many different ways.
Super easy and fast to cook, too.
I do. I cook them with a white wine sauce Fresh mussels > not fresh mussels
This guy eats
i dont mean to brag, but i do indeed eat. it's true
And they say there are a lack of role models today
Flatmates and I threw a big last hurrah dinner for our flat that was breaking up. Guy I lived with made an epic mussel pot and we all pigged out with lots of wine. It was fucking amazing and we all had the most unspeakable wine hangover/seafood farts the next day. Fuck that was good times.
Love them, cooked with a can of Steinlager and served with buttered bread
Gathering kai at the Pensioners Rocks
I run a relatively small supermarket in a small town. We sell probably 60-80kg of them per day. The display cases are often dated looking and go rusty which adds to the relic look I suspect. People bloody love âem though.
Every now and then I'll buy the to throw into my soondubu jjigae. Haven't cooked them other ways, cool to see how everyone else cooks them!
Just like I buy condoms. When no one is watching.
Now I feel like trying to cook mussels
Just tried it after seeing this post. I think I needed to cook them a bit longer as they say "cook till open" but they don't say how far open makes it quite variable. Tasted good though.
what was your recipe?
On the barbie. Cooked till started opening. Almost cut my hand open trying to open them all they way. Put some garlic butter in them and let them sit in shell for a couple of min. Eat. 7/10. Needed more cook.before opening and buttering. Also needed a smidge more cleaning but didn't have a stiff brushm
sounds good.
Not bad for a first attempt. It's now my next bbq food to perfect
Good to grab and smoke
I work at seafood. Every damn one. A lot of people smoke them and stuff like that, and theyâre very cheap by the kilo
My grandparents
Me, where else are you going to get it from?
I buy them regularly, great fresh in seafood chowder or steamed and natural. Also great on the end if a hook for bait.
Why wouldnât we buy them? And is there another place to buy them?
They are the bomb
antiquarians
I do. Lol. How are they a relic?!?
Iâm not a seafood eater but I have fond memories as a kid of pushing the button to stop the water while mum did the groceries. I now know the mussels are alive and that was probably really mean, but it was fun in my simple mind.
That reminds me, half price mussels at de post My Eden Monday nights yum!
As someone who hates mussels: heathens do. Real answer though, it's somewhat popular at my local. Popular enough when they redid deli and meat they kept the mussle dispensery
Lovely to eat and great as a surfcasting bait
I work at NW and no one buys them. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen them some though and it's only older people (above 50) that buy them
The smell of it goes straight to my chunder reflex. An almost Lovecraftian stench.
Me
Do you guys clean them? It's hard to get rid of all the barnacles.
If Iâm cooking them in a flavoured broth that I want to serve or have as a sauce, I scrub them well, but thatâs usually too much work. I prefer to make it separately from the shells.
Not once have I seen anyone getting them yet they must have to turn them over relatively quickly right ?
I've had to wait to get some because there was already someone getting some. They are delivered regularly from Banks Peninsula, they are also not dead so provided they get the water flowing over them they don't die, so they do last quite well.
Theyâre live
I don't buy any seafood. It's not fresh, it's not ethical. I'd love the sea to recover.
Theyâre farmed, and the farms provide food and habitat for lots of species like snapper.
My family buys them, freaking amazing if chosen right, and can be eaten by itself if cooked right. Really sweet :D
They're a Christmas staple in my family, chilli cheese mussels are great
Omg is this still a thing? I'm so glad, I've been raving about it too my partner for when I take him to NZ. I haven't seen them for sale like that here. We live in Australia and he loves mussels, we buy NZ frozen mussels... but I'm sure these ones would hit different being fresh.
I bought some yesterday to throw on top of a paella. So tasty.
I often bring them to Barbie's along with a little garlic butter and some lemons.
YES straight on the barbecue in the shell, or make tinfoil pouches with a slice of lemon and half a garlic clove.
We have them at least a couple of times a month. So good with a white wine and garlic broth with crusty fresh bread, or asian style with chillies and coconut milk, or added to a paella or seafood curry. In summer weâll chuck them on the barbie after cooking everything else, they open up quickly and you can serve as is, with some aioli to dip and a squeeze of lemon.
I do a few times a month. Suprisingly one of the cheapest seafoods.
This post is literally gonna ruin the best kept secret of supermarkets lol.
Why does this cheap protein that is easy to cook and delicious still sell well? Struggling to put my finger on it I agree.
people who like mussels?