Mussels
Ingredients
- 4 quarts mussels
- 4 chopped leeks
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 1/4 lb. butter (optional)
- 4 minced cloves garlic
- Pepper
- 1 1/4 cups white wine
Method
- Soak and scrub and scrape 4 quarts of mussels using a wire brush if possible.
- Put in a large pot, add chopped leeks, chopped parsley, minced garlic and a few grindings of black pepper and white wine.
- Cover and cook until open which won't be long.
- Remove from shells, pluck off beards and black parts and put mussels in a tureen, straining the hot broth over them.
- Add butter if desired. Serve with garlic bread. Broth may be served as sauce.
Notes from the transcription
- The mussels with stomach and beards removed may be egged and crumbed and fried very lightly in butter until gold. Wonderful. Serves 4 to 8 depending on appetites.
Original page from the cookbook
About this recipe
This recipe is transcribed verbatim from a spiral-bound community cookbook produced in Pismo Beach, California. The book was a fundraising publication of the type common to civic groups, church auxiliaries, and fishing communities on the California coast in the mid-twentieth century — recipes contributed by named cooks, illustrated with hand-drawn section dividers, and printed locally.
Spellings, measurements, and ingredient lists are preserved as they appeared in print, including typographic quirks and any inconsistencies. Where an ingredient is used in the method but was missing from the printed ingredient block, it has been added to the list here so the recipe is self-contained; every such addition is taken word-for-word from the printed method.
The full yesteryear collection preserves 123 recipes from this book. The modern collection is open to new contributions from today's Pismo clammers.