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How to prepare cockles

Name: How to prepare cockles
Prep time: 1 h 25 min
Cook time: 27 min
Total time: 1 h 52 min
Yield: 120 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1 kg cockles; 1 shallot; 1 sprig parsley; 10 g butter; 100 ml dry white wine; pepper

Cockles are small Atlantic shellfish which can be used in many delicious dishes. However, they need to be prepared with care before cooking.

Here is a simple way to do this.

568 K 1× 3.7/5 (168 reviews)

1 hour 55 min. difficulté

Easy

6.85 €

120 g

6 Ingredients

Last modified on: March 13^th 2013

For 120 g, you will need:

1 1 kg cockles
2 1 shallot
3 1 sprig parsley
4 10 g butter
5 100 ml dry white wine
6 pepper
Total weight: 1,135 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 25 min.

Resting: 1 hour

Cooking: 30 min.

All in all: 1 hour 55 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 30 min.

Tip the cockles into a large container of cold water. Stir them round briefly and leave for 30 minutes.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 3 min.

After this time, remove the cockles form the water. It is important not to tip the contents of the container through a sieve (which will not extract the sand), but remove them carefully from the water.

See how on this video.

Discard the water, rinse out the container, refill it with clean water and put the cockles back in.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 30 min.

Leave to soak for another 30 minutes.

Repeat this operation until the water remains clear.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.

Chop 1 shallot.

Rinse the parsley, keeping the stalk.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 2 min.

Melt 10 g butter in a large pan then add the chopped shallot and parsley, but do not add salt or pepper. Cook without colouring for 1 minute.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 5 min.

Add 100 ml dry white wine and bring to the boil.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 2 min.

As soon as the white wine boils, add the washed cockles...

Stage 8

...and cover.

Stage 9

After a few minutes, the shells will begin to open. Stir them round in the pan so that those that are still closed are in the wine to give them the chance to open.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 5 min.

After 3 or 4 minutes take out all the opened cockles, using a (spider) araignée or skimmer and put them in a sieve.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 10 min.

Remove the contents of the cockles one at a time and discard the shells. Discard any cockles that have broken shells and any that have not opened.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 2 min.

Rinse the cockles under cold running water to remove any remaining sand.

Stage 13

If you plan to use the cooking liquid to make a sauce, which is a very good idea, you will need to reduce it.

Stage 14 - ⌛ 3 min.

Pour the contents of the pan into a smaller pan through a fine sieve.

Stage 15

Beware: the sand from the cockles will collect at the bottom of the pan, so it is important NOT to try and filter right to the last drop, but discard the liquid from the bottom (and the sand with it).

Stage 16 - ⌛ 15 min.

Reduce the remaining saved cooking liquid by around half over low heat before using in your recipe.

Remarks

When preparing cockles, you will encounter two problems: sand, which is very unpleasant in the mouth (so do follow the advice to deal with this) and the saltiness of the cooking liquid. If you use this to make a sauce, do not add any salt.

Cockles are mostly shells and water: for 1 kg of cockles you will only end up with around 100 g of useful cockle meat (90% waste).

Keeping: A few hours in the fridge in a sealed container or covered with plastic film.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	60 RDI=20 %	20 RDI=2 %	40 RDI=6 %	650 RDI=30 %	2,730 RDI: 30 %
Per 100 g	5 RDI=2 %	1 RDI=0 %	3 RDI=1 %	60 RDI=3 %	240 RDI: 3 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: milk, Sulfites

How much will it cost?

For 120 g : 6.85 €

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Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

Some other recipes using this recipeSee them all 7

Creamy spaghetti with cockles and parsley

Parsley-flavored spaghetti with cockles, tied together with a creamy sauce made from the cockles cooking juices.
30 K1 60 min.

Cockles and cabbage with smoky cream sauce

I think you'll like this straightforward recipe which brings together cockles and cabbage with a smoky cream sauce.
41 K 1 hour 6 min.

Tagliatelle with cockles

In this recipe, the cockles and pasta are prepared separately, then mixed with the sauce at the last minute. The cockles are first cooked quickly, then shelled carefully (I find it unpleasant to have to do this on the plate) and the cooking juices are used to prepare a cream sauce. The tagliatelle...
160 K 14.7 2 hours 20 min.

Crusty cockle tart

A small puff pastry tart case filled with cockles in a cream and egg-yolk sauce ("a la poulette" in French).
120 K4.3 2 hours 55 min.

Fisherman's Ragout

This ragout combines vegetables (cut small and cooked until just tender in vegetable stock) with a mix of cockles and chunks of fish, all simmered together with cream and saffron.
121 K4.1 2 hours 20 min.

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The 1 comment already posted on this recipe

Just made this. It was delicious! very easy to follow your instructions.
Many Thanks!
Posted by Anonymous may 2^nd 2016 at 09:58 n° 1

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