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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Mussels

234 replies

PossiblyPFB · 09/02/2020 22:01

Fairly trivial but....

We love Mussels and chips (specifically Moules marienère style) in our house and I find them a great dinner party option as an easy but impressive main dish for a crowd, with skinny chips, salad, and French bread to sop up the sauce.

I always check whether anyone has any dietary requirements or particular dislikes to avoid before hosting. Now I find myself having to ask, and so, what’s your view on molluscs, as some people who ‘are easy’ will say actually, yeah, no mussels thanks when I double check.

It’s become apparent to me that mussels (in general, not mine- which are delicious!) .....are very marmite.

So I’m interested in the MN vote......

Mussels are amazing (YANBU)
Mussels are the worst (YABU)
If they are the worst- WHY??? Help me understand!

Thank you in advance!

Smile
OP posts:
Whichoneofyoudidthat · 10/02/2020 09:54

It's odd. sometimes I love them....sometimes they smell and taste like the inside of a pig sty. why is that?

Zaphodsotherhead · 10/02/2020 10:00

I love them (also love snails) but am HUGELY allergic and have had to stop eating them following a reaction that had me hospitalised on oxygen and adrenaline.

But I love all shellfish. That lovely 'sea' taste but without the bones! Yum!

amaryl · 10/02/2020 10:02

I absolutely love them, but completely understand how people can be repulsed by them.
I would never serve them at a dinner party unless I knew for certain everyone loved them, all my family do

LakieLady · 10/02/2020 10:14

But once on holiday he must have had a bad one and it made him pretty ill for several days. He tried them again some time later but they didn't go down well. Not as bad as the first time but definitely not right. Same the next few times so in the end he regretfully decided to give them, assuming that his system must now identify them as a toxin

Is that what happens? The body is an amazing thing, isn't it? Remembering that something made it ill, and rejecting it for ever after ...

MrsMonkeyBear · 10/02/2020 10:52

I absolutely adore mussels. When I was in the very early stages of pregnancy (as in not done a test early,) I got a crazy craving for them whilst out for the day with my mum. We found an amazing seafood place and I had 2 massive bowls of them with loads of bread.

If they are on the menu somewhere, I will always order them.

bobstersmum · 10/02/2020 10:56

I'd rather eat my own arse than eat mussels, oysters, snails etc.

ColdNovemberRain · 10/02/2020 11:19

My sister is one of those folk who will eat shellfish but not mussels. I think this is just because they look weird to her. I can appreciate that it is frustrating though if you have checked dietary requirements but it turns out that people have sub-categorised their food in a way that didn't fit with your question. I suppose it would be the same as someone assuring a host they eat rd meat and then announcing that they don't like lamb when that is served.

I adore mussels and will almost always order them if they are on a menu. I am salivating at the thought of the big cauldron full of mussels and wish I had friends like OP who threw dinner parties like this!

I have experienced the opposite to many PPs here. I developed a sudden allergy to prawns a few years ago - full on anaphylaxis (sp?) and now carry an epi-pen. I have no idea if it is all crustaceans or just prawns but I haven't wanted to experiment to find out. I am absolutely fine with molluscs/bivalves though (although have to be wary that they haven't been cooked in a fish stock made from prawn heads, or Thai-style which fish sauce/shrimp paste etc) and I know that this has led some of hard-of-thinking acquaintances to believe that I'm just making up the whole allergy (because they see me eating something on one occasion and refusing it the next). I'm very glad I still have mussels in my life though - I can cope without prawns and crab but would be seriously upset if I couldn't eat mussels anymore. I'm just hoping my allergy won't develop or mutate in that direction. I was once (years before the prawn allergy developed) very sick after eating clams (linguine alla vongole would be one of my desert island dishes) but it didn't put me off eating them again.

Personally I do think that moules frites is an impressive dinner party option - especially with the theatre of the cauldron. I'm surprised by those who consider this to be a cheap mid-week lunch or kids meal. Maybe I just need to move in different circles Grin

Getitwright · 10/02/2020 11:28

Yep, very marmite. I know more who don’t like them than do, plus a few with allergies.
I love them, but am always careful to de-beard them properly. OH had to be given time to try them, but now loves them in a fish pie. I also love whelks, even more marmite!

I think it’s texture as well as taste that puts some off.

ToriaPumpkin · 10/02/2020 11:30

I am officially not allergic to anything but mussels and prawns being near/mixed with my food have made me violently ill on more than one occasion so now I just say I'm allergic to shellfish. It doesn't bother me as I don't particularly like them anyway!

DH would eat them until they came out of his ears. To each their own.

TheLovleyChebbyMcGee · 10/02/2020 11:35

It's a texture thing, but also they are filter feeders and are literally full of bacteria. I did a lab practical at uni where we opened raw mussels and cultured them for bacteria, the results were awful. I mean I guess prawns may be the same, but mussels just have very little substance to them!!!

InOtterNews · 10/02/2020 11:41

Love mussels, just love them. Especially thai style with chilli, coconut and lemongrass. They can be a bit of bugger to clean though. 99% of the time I eat with french bread so I can soak up the sauce.

In the reserve of PPs - I can't abide scallops - which I find odd as love all seafood.

Crab is my absolute favourite.

QuestionableMouse · 10/02/2020 11:43

I'm highly allergic so they'd be a terrible choice for me. đŸ˜‚đŸ¤”đŸ˜²

OnlyTheTitOfTheLangBerg · 10/02/2020 11:52

It wouldn't necessarily occur to me to specify that I don't eat mussels or oysters, simply because they're so well known as 'marmite' foods that I wouldn't expect a dinner party host to serve them unless they'd specifically checked beforehand that everyone likes them. So on that basis YABU.

Smellbow · 10/02/2020 11:58

I no longer eat anything that is cooked alive, but I'm not sure I'd think to say that when asked about a dinner party! I suppose I just wouldn't be expecting them from people I know, so your friends might well be different.

CorianderLord · 10/02/2020 12:00

I absolutely love mussels, but sadly I'm vegan so they're out.

Cheeeeesecaaaaakkkeeee · 10/02/2020 12:26

Only if they are fresh ones... ones that were frozen taste like rubber

Wincher · 10/02/2020 12:34

I do enjoy them but not as much as my kids - it's a massive treat for them to have them for tea every now and then. I'm still never sure if I'm cleaning them right though: I put them in cold water, pull off the seaweedy bits that are clamped in the shells, and then try and fail to get the limpet shell thingys on the outside of the shells off. Sometimes i can pull out little worms from the shell things but there is no way I can get the actual shells off. Am I meant to be able to??

CynthiaRothrock · 10/02/2020 12:35

I don't eat any type of seafood at all. I actually like the taste but haven't come across anything yet that doesn't give me the nastiest runs ever! And no it's not because it wasn't cooked or off. I have tried a lot, several times with the same result. So I would've declining your menu.

CynthiaRothrock · 10/02/2020 12:36

*Would be

Hingeandbracket · 10/02/2020 12:36

Mussels are amazing (YANBU)

Skyejuly · 10/02/2020 12:38

Hate them

BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs · 10/02/2020 12:48

but also they are filter feeders and are literally full of bacteria. I did a lab practical at uni where we opened raw mussels and cultured them for bacteria, the results were awful.

This is it for me. I used to love them as a child but remember going to a talk at an aquarium when I was about 7 where they were telling us about how mussels filter feed, and later on there was a comment about 'you are what you eat' and since then I've never been able to shake the thought that eating mussels is basically just eating sludge and dirt and bacteria from all the rubbish dumped into the water. Dp will order them and I'll happily dunk bread in the delicious sauce, and I love the idea of a massive steaming plate of garlicky mussels, tasty broth and crispy bread, but I'd really struggle to actually eat one now - I have a total psychological block.

Scallops though...

speakout · 10/02/2020 13:41

BreastedBoobilyToTheStairs

Depends on the water.

I buy Scottish mussels rope farmed in fresh cold Atlantic waters. No sludge or rubbish.

Plus I always feed my mussels for a day or so in a bucket of salty water- sprinkle with oatmeal or flour. It cleans out the gastrointestinal tract.

I believe some people do the same with snails- feed them with butter, flour and garlic for a day or two before eating.

Grumpbum123 · 10/02/2020 13:42

I was put off them as a kitchen hand aged 15 having to prepare buckets and buckets of them meant I never want to see another ever again

Damntheman · 10/02/2020 13:48

It's a texture thing for me, I can't stand it! I'm not usually a fussy eater but I can't handle mussles.