Friday, June 8, 2012

Trader Joe's Maine Whole Cherrystone Clams

There's an old adage for us scribes that's been passed down over the generations: Write what you know. That was drilled into my head while getting a journalism degree at Penn State, and it obviously makes a great deal of sense. If you don't know anything about the subject matter you're writing about, it shows as blatantly as a glass of wine spilled on a white sofa. As proof, you should see the articles I wrote covering collegiate rugby for Penn State's Daily Collegian.

Or you can just continue reading this review about Trader Joe's Maine Whole Cherrystone Clams. I'm not sure how many times I've had clams in my life, but it's probably in the single digits, and almost assuredly every other time they've been deep-fried. Plus, my history with canned seafood is more or less restricted to tuna fish, which I'll admit, I absolutely hate. The smell kinda grosses me out, and when growing up whenever my mom opened a can our kitty cat would run up begging for a bite, only to barf it up two minutes later. I'm sure there's a lot worse things to put in a can (oh yeah there is - viewer discretion advised) but it's not how I'd choose to get my seafood. The way I figure it, though, is if Trader Joe's can reasonably impress (or at least not totally gross out) a canned clam rookie, that must mean they're reasonably good. Alternatively, of course, they could be absolutely terrible, but if I don't know any better, then I'm completely off-base. Readers, you're going to have to be the judge here.

On to the clams. Hmm. So that's what a whole unbreaded/unfried clam looks like when the shell gets shucked. Umm...interesting. Gulp. At least it's kinda hard to make out where the face is, so I feel less guilty. To me, the clams kinda taste how they smell, which I mean as a compliment. I grew up going to Maine and visiting the coast there, so the gritty, salty, briny, mineral-ly, rocky aroma that permeates each bite is actually fairly pleasant in its own way. Yeah, they kinda taste like Maine, and I freakin' love that state. To keep with my theme of ignorance, I'm going to assume that the "cherrystone" part of the name refers to the dark center of gutsy matter that's in the clam's main body, because in no other way to me do these remind me of either a cherry or a stone. As I kinda suspected they would be, the clams are a little chewier than I'd like, but then again, it's a whole skeletonless animal.

Sandy and I had these with dinner with a box of lemon pepper clam linguini we unearthed a little while back while tearing apart and putting our kitchen back together. I think at first I pushed to make it with shrimp instead, but since the pasta box said "clam", Sandy insisted we couldn't. It had to be clams, thus forcing our purchase ($1.99 a can). In a way, that turned out to be a good thing, as we've found out we need to be a little more intentional about iron in her diet in the last couple days/weeks/however long before our lil' baby decides to make his/her appearance (due in just a few weeks! We're getting our hospital bag packed!). Anyways, both Sandy and I feel about the same about them - decent enough, but no strong feelings one way or the other, mostly because we don't know any better. We'll be fair and give it a solid "not bad."

Bottom line: Trader Joe's Maine Whole Cherrystone Clams: 6 out of 10 Golden Spoons

8 comments:

  1. Actually, "cherrystone" is a comment on the size of the clam. They're the second-largest size legally harvestable (below quahogs and above littlenecks).

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  2. So I guess that means you won't be reviewing the Trader Joe's tuna that's packed in olive oil any time soon... :-) BTW, for those of us who like canned tuna it is really good once you add the mayo, pickle relish, onions, etc. to make tuna salad. The oil gives it some extra flavor.

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  3. NEVER .... EVER eat seafood from a can. EVER!!!

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  4. These clams are better for patching a flat tire on your car, than cooking up with linguine. Please bring back the chopped clams from way back when.

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  5. These clams are good. Good flavor, good size, a little chewy but I like.

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  6. Cans I got had each clam full to bursting with black solid clam poo. I can't eat that. Some consider the "full belly" clam thing a delicacy, say it's just plankton. Yeah, it's clam poop before it's been expelled. Took half hour per can but I sliced open each clam, squeezed out the black solid chunks & rinsed them out. I don't want to get sick, there's no way that's going into my linguine.

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  7. Never again. Clams were unpurged and full of sand(poop). Waste of time and money.Avoid this product! Buy fresh from seafood market instead.

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  8. Fabulous! I made a clam chowder with these using the clam broth, some cream, butter, and it was amazing! No, I didn't rinse them or take out the "bellies". Why buy these if you're going to do that? Just buy the chopped clams if you don't like the bellies! These are going on my "must buy" list when I make a trip to Trader Joe's.

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