Clams are my favorite dish, especially in summer with a bottle of beer, which is simply perfect. However, many people from the north are not very familiar with clams, because they do not live near the sea. So when making this dish it is easy to get it wrong, and lots of sand will naturally affect the texture.

Clams are not only delicious but also nutritious. Clams are high in protein, amino acids, and various vitamins as well as calcium and other nutrients essential to the human body. They also have a remarkable cholesterol-lowering effect. Traditional Chinese medicine also considers clams very suitable for eating, with effects such as nourishing yin and brightening the eyes, and resolving phlegm and moistening the lungs.

But before cooking clams, they must go through the step of purging sand, because during their growth clams take in some fine sand, so stir-frying them directly will affect the texture. Therefore they must be purged of sand before they can be stir-fried.

There are many ways to make clams spit out sand, but the most commonly used is still salt.

Method one: table salt

Put the clams you bought into clean water, add an appropriate amount of table salt to the water, and let them sit for three or four hours. By then you will find that most of the clams have poked their heads out and the water has become cloudy, which shows the clams have more or less spat out all the sand.

Method two: stirring method

Soak the clams in warm water at about 50 degrees, then quickly stir the clams with chopsticks; the clams' stomachs will not adapt to this and they will naturally spit out sand. Or quickly shaking the basin can achieve the same effect.

Method three: add vinegar

Adding vinegar is also a good method; in fact it is very similar to the first salt method, just using a different material. The procedure is the same as with salt. Because if you just put the clams into clean water, the clams generally will not open their shells completely, and so will not spit out the sand very quickly. But if you add salt and vinegar to the water, it will cause the clams discomfort, and then they will spit out the sand more easily.

Method four: add rapeseed oil

The purpose of adding rapeseed oil is to create an environment with insufficient oxygen. But be careful not to add too much oil; too much will cause severe oxygen deprivation and the clams will soon die. Everyone knows that if clams die their shells will not open, and then you cannot eat them. So just add a little rapeseed oil, and after one or two hours the clams will have more or less spat all the sand clean.

Some friends also put an iron cleaver or iron nail in the basin while the clams purge sand, and this can also speed up the purging. Because clams are relatively sensitive to the smell of rust, this can speed up the purging of sand.

In addition, clams are delicious, so when making clams do not add MSG, and add less salt too, so that they stay delicious. Some friends also add a small can of beer when stir-frying clams, which can enhance the freshness.

The above comes from Science Xingnong.