Blue Mussels: Weird Flex

These common marine shellfish help protect shorelines, are a good environmental indicator, produce threads that can be woven into cloth – and happen to taste great in a garlic sauce. Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of blue mussels.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Sabor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Lauren Vocalbaum, and today we have an
episode for you about blue muscles. M The craving is real,
for sure, Oh it is, Oh absolutely, And actually that
this is a topic that I suggested because I had
just had some very good muscles and I was like,

(00:30):
let's talk more about muscles. Jealous I wondered if you
suggested it because we recently, the joyous nerds that we are,
got our D and D crew together saw the movie
I went to a restaurant where a bunch of people
were ordering muscles, and I, yeah, I've been craving him.

(00:53):
I've been craving. I have a friend who I love
this about him. He always orders muscles. Okay, Like the
situation is if muscles around the menu, that is, it
could be literally like I don't think we have time
for you to do this, doesn't matter. Are happening. It's

(01:14):
actually really endearing. I really love it. Um. I I
do love muscles, but I also every time I have them,
I realize how much I love like buttery, savory sauces
soaked like bread. Yeah, soaking up those sauces and the muscle,
the whole thing. The whole thing is lovely. Yeah, I

(01:36):
h it's just a perfect little bite. It's They're just
very tasty little creatures. M h. And they do soak
up the flavor very well. Nice white wine sauce in there.
Oh oh my gosh. Well they're also fascinating. I can't
wait to talk about them. Yeah. Yeah, you can see

(01:58):
our other episodes on em older seafood things like oysters
and scalops I think would be good. Sure, yeah, maybe
the big big Seafood Industry Big fish Industry episode. Yeah yeah,
maybe even s cargo, which we'll talk about a little bit. Okay, sure, yes, Well,
I guess that brings us into a question. Sure, blue

(02:21):
muscles what are they? Well, blue muscles are a type
of marine mollusk with a hinged, two piece shell that
The shell is commonly blue black in color, hence the
name blue muscles. They are often served in that shell,
as most of the shells will naturally pop open when

(02:42):
they're cooked, and the edible bit inside will at least
partially loosen from the shell, at which point, yeah, they'll
they'll contain just a small bite of meat that's that's
tender and slightly sweet and slightly briny and savory. They
can be roasted or steamed, and they're often served in
a broth or stew of some kind that can be

(03:03):
sipped or stopped up with bread. They're like, um, they're
like if a pistachio was a seafood. Ah. They're like
like like like like a lot of shellfish kind of
resists being eaten. Uh, Like crabs, for example, do not
want you to consume them. They're kind of mad about it.
But I feel like muscles are like, oh, please go ahead,

(03:25):
I come in my own serving tray. Here you go. Um.
They're just right. They're just a perfect little bite. M Yes,
they are antistachios. It's perfect comparison, Lauren. Yeah. Um, and okay,
like heck, biology is weird. Um. I was originally gonna say,

(03:47):
heck but shellfish are weird. But like, look at us,
like we have toes what what's that about? I don't know. Uh,
but blue muscles all right, So they're are at least
three species in the genus Mytillis that are referred to
as blue muscles as opposed to green muscles or other

(04:08):
various kinds of muscles. They are filter feeding bivalves that
grow in shallow seawater like a coastal areas with the
temperate to cold climates. Their shells are sort of teardrop
shaped and will be black to blue black to brownish
on the outside and white and pearly on the inside.
They're they're generally harvested when they're about two to four

(04:30):
inches long, but can grow up to about twice that size,
and they keep their shells closed or mostly closed, with
this strong cylindrical muscle that is not part of what
you're eating. Usually as adults, they are mostly sedentary. They
sort of lock into place on the seafloor or other

(04:51):
available stuff like like ropes that muscle farmers might put
out in the water, or even the bottom of ships
or other human structures that though they can they can
move around if they need to because to lock in,
they create these adhesive strings that are called bistle threads.
And if you've ever seen on a mussel shell or

(05:13):
heard about a muscle's beard, that's that's what we're talking about.
And it's not like a full Santa Clause beard. It's
a little bit whispy, yeah um from their latched on
spot though they eat by filtering water through their shells
and pulling out a plankton and other microorganisms little bits
of tasty stuff that are floating in the water. And
in these ways they're they're actually really great for marine

(05:35):
ecosystems because they help keep the water clean through that filtration,
and they can they can build up like a pretty
serious bed or colony of shells and threads and silt
and mud that'll shelter coasts from rough water and also
provide habitat for other sea creatures. Because they will also

(05:56):
take in pollutants like microplastics, they are also useful for
studying pollution in waterways and more on that throughout. But
sort of a life cycle, okay. Adults will spawn during
the spring and summer. That is, a male's release sperm
and females release eggs out into the water, and if

(06:17):
they meet under the right conditions, a larva will begin
to develop. And I say a larva, but females release
like fifty million to two hundred million eggs in a
single go so so it's almost certainly going to be
plural larvae. And these are also called seed or spat
in the fishing industry. Lots of them will get eaten

(06:38):
by other larger marine life, but if they make it,
they'll develop just free swimming for a couple of weeks
and then metamorphize a couple of times, and we'll be
ready to settle in around other blue muscles and start
growing their protective shell. In nature, they'll do this on
the sea floor, but in aquaculture you can encourage them
to lock in on a bunch of different kinds of substrates,

(07:00):
mostly various forms of rope setups, and for the next
two or three years they'll they'll grow and mature. They
grow their shells and concentric layers from the inside out,
so on the outside you might see little ridges or
rings that represent different previous sizes of the animals shell.
They're harvested in the winter months, when they're putting their
resources towards bulking hum to survive the cold rather than

(07:23):
towards spawning. Also useful for winter harvesting. Some microbes that
can cause food poisoning in US are less active or
less populous during the winter, which brings me to the
point that we are ostensibly a food show. So the
meat of blue muscles will be like yellow to orange

(07:44):
in color, and when cooked, it firms up into a
sort of little oblong ball sort of shape and mostly
separates off from the shell. And you can roast or
steam or boil them right in their shells and serve
them like that in a and broth or stew maybe yeah,
stuff them with breadcrumbs or other tasty things, and they'll

(08:06):
be tender and meaty, like not very chewy, savory, sweet briny.
And they're fairly delicate in flavors, so they can go
well with either like a really delicate kind of sauce
or a really strong kind of sauce, like anything from
like a nice bright white wine and butter thing to
like a beer an onion thing to like a garlic

(08:27):
and tomato thing, or you could, you know, just split
them open and pass them under a broiler, fill them
with cheese. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you want anything right,
sounds so good? All right, we're adding like a full
muscle course to our Oh my gosh, oh I'm so excited. Yes, um, Well,

(08:54):
what about the nutrition. They're a good source of protein
and uh and have a little bit of a good
fats to them. Some of those are mega threes that
you hear about good source of minerals. You know, your
final nutrition mileage may vary based on your like muscle
to butter ratio eat a vegetable. Yes, yeah, yes, yes,

(09:15):
well we do have some numbers for you. One number
I found valued the global blue muscle aquacultural industry at
one point five billion dollars billion dollars a year. Yeah. Yeah,
the the overall muscle industry is like four times that
or something something to that extent, like three to four

(09:36):
times that, which is why I cut us down to
just blue muscles for today. Yeah. And as of twenty sixteen, anyway,
the United States alone was producing about ten million dollars
worth of muscles a year, which was equal to some
eight hundred and ninety four thousand pounds hoof. There are

(09:57):
a number of muscle festivals in places that harvest them
with activities like chowder tastings and aquaculture tours. I want
to go, yes, yes, yes, some of the some of
the contraptions that they come up with, for um, for
getting the muscles to grow on on the suspended rope

(10:20):
and kind of cage situations are really beautiful and fascinating. Um.
And I've seen I've seen a few larger constructions that
incorporate that kind of structure with also growth for seaweed um,
and also growth for stuff like a steelhead trout. So
really fascinating. Yes. Anyway, Um, a single muscle can filter

(10:46):
about fifteen gallons of water a day. Wow. That's amazing
um and kind of related. More than fifty countries have
data collected from muscles to monitor the quality of seawater. Uh.
And some of these countries have uninterrupted data starting from
the nineteen sixties. Oh wow. Oh that's so cool. Yeah. Yeah,
And we are going to be talking more about that

(11:07):
because fascinating history behind it we're speaking of. We do
have a lot of history for you. Oh, we do.
When we're going to get into that as soon as
we get back from a quick break for a word
from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,

(11:29):
thank you. So, as we've discussed in episodes about oysters
things like that, muscles are very old a long time
as a creature. They have been around for a while,
they have, and humans have been eating them for a while,
especially along the Northern Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the North

(11:50):
and South Baltic seas. People have been harvesting them and
consuming muscles for thousands of years. Indigenous North Americans use
them for food and supplies. Blue muscle shells dating back
to at least six thousand BC have been discovered in
kitchen middens so long time, but most most of the

(12:12):
time they were harvested from wild beds, especially in Europe,
which is where a lot of this information I was
able to find came from. And people, Yeah, they not
only ate them, but they also used them as bait
to catch fish and also fertilizer. And I had never
heard of this, but they also used the threads that

(12:34):
beard that you talked about, Lauren, Yeah, from like really
large blue muscles. They would collect it, they would dry it,
they would spin it to make something that they called
sea silk. Whoa was so cool. That sounds very tedious.
It sounds very tedious, and also like something you would

(12:55):
read in a fantasy novel, like yes, yes, and it
was really really strong, but it was also very fine
and light like a lot of accounts described how easily
it could be folded up and how easily it could
be stored. Some sources suggest that ancient Greek and Roman
emperors may have worn robes or cloaks that were made
out of sea silk, and perhaps even King Tutankhamon may

(13:17):
have worn sea silk garments. Other sources alleged that it
was mentioned on the Rosetta stone that perhaps it was
the fabric of the cloth that God instructed Moses to
lay on the first Altar. A lot, a lot going
on with it, However, it's really not commonly made anymore.

(13:37):
It wasn't really back then either. But in twenty fifteen,
the BBC reported on Yara Vigo, the last woman who
makes sea silk, and it was a really, really fascinating,
fascinating article. She lives in Sardinia and in spring she
would go out on about three hundred to four hundred dives,
accompanied by the local coastguard, as the muscles there are

(14:01):
a protected species, and she did all of this to
collect about two hundred grams of these threads, all without
harming the blue muscles. She doesn't sell what she makes,
but she gives it away to those who need help.
She told the BBC in this article it would be
like commercializing the flight of an eagle. The business is

(14:22):
the soul of the sea. It is sacred, oh I know. A.
Vigo claimed that Haraud the Great's great granddaughter, Princess Barnice,
brought the tradition of sea silk to the region in
the first century CE, because there was a lot of
like how did this tradition start, how did it get
tied up with religion, and how her history her understanding

(14:47):
of how this got passed down through her family. Until
Mussolini came onto the scene, several Italian women did work
with these threads, and some even tried to make a
business out of it, but it just never worked. It
was like basically too complicated. I can see why. Yes, yes, yes,
but I had never heard of that. That's really interesting.

(15:08):
Listeners as always have any more information about that or
any experience, Yeah, or if it has been written into
some kind of fantasy story that I've missed, right, yes, yes, yes,
please let us know, but let us come back to
the main outline. Yes, The Picious included two recipes for muscles.

(15:31):
Records suggest that the French were some of the first
to farm muscles in the thirteenth century, and to do so,
they implanted these wooden poles called bouchau an estuary mud,
and the muscles would grow alongside the poles. A popular
legend credits a shipwrecked irishman named Patrick Walton for coming

(15:54):
up with this idea. As legend has it, he found
himself washed up in the Bay of Agullon in the
early thirteenth century after fleeing Ireland rather quickly due to
some illegal trouble, yes, and he was in need of
sustenance to survive, so using what he had on hand

(16:15):
and what he could scrounge up, he erected some wooden
poles in the mud with a net stretched between them,
with the idea that he would catch migrating birds. And
it sounds like he didn't have the best luck with that,
but he did notice that muscles were growing and flattening
alongside the wooden poles, so soon enough he pivoted from

(16:38):
trying to catch these migrating seabirds to growing muscles along
the poles, and he erected more and more of them
to do so, and the technique was adopted throughout the
French Atlantic coastline and is still in use in some
areas to this day, though with some improvements, perhaps obviously,
but other people say he was not the first cultivator

(17:01):
of muscles in Europe by a long shot, and that
they were cultivated in Italy as far back as five
hundred BC, when people would use bundles of sticks or
rope lowered into water for the muscles to grow on
to other methods originated nearby. I couldn't find as much
information as I wanted to about them. But in Spain

(17:24):
people figured out how to grow muscles on long, heavy ropes,
while in Northern Europe they realized they could grow muscles
on bottom culture plots. So people were invested and interested
and learning how to get more muscles. Oh yeah, oh yeah,
oh yes. Fifteenth century cookbooks out of France contained recipes

(17:46):
for muscles. They were typically steamed and seasoned, spiced buttered.
They were recommended in stews as well as all kinds
of things. Really, it was really interesting, but I did
get the vibe, I don't know if you've got this
five loren, that they were seen as the poor man's oyster,
or even a replacement for s cargo if you couldn't

(18:08):
get it, like not necessarily looked down upon. In some instances,
people were really saying, like, y'all are missing out not
eating these, but seen is not as good or just
not as well known. Maybe like a second class protein
is sort of like like, well, like they are these
sort of fancier ones, and this one is a little
bit more common um, not right right, not necessarily like

(18:33):
oh common um, but but just you know, it was
I don't feel like I've come across the way that
they were written about so often in these episodes, because
normally it's like, oh, this is a rich person thing
or not. Yeah, it's much more kind of like, no,
it's really good and we should all be eating it,

(18:53):
but also it's not as good as certainly I hadn't.
I haven't come across the kind of like waxing poetic
about mussels the way that I have about some other
food products. So yes, yes, I just thought that was interesting.
And this brings us to this, which is also fascinating.

(19:15):
Records show that blue muscles were one of the first
organisms studied basically to get a read on the environmental
health of seawater, going back as far as eighteen eighty six. Wow. Yeah,
And the nineteenth century is also when over fishing up
blue muscles became a real concern. A part of this

(19:36):
was the growing practice of renting muscle culture plots that
led to the depletion of natural beds, so just kind
of mucking about with the environments of them. Though muscles
were available in North America, non native Americans pretty much
ignored them as a food source until the twentieth century.
Apparently a part of this had to deal with fears

(19:58):
around getting sick from eating them. With the price of
clams rising though an exposure to different dishes using muscles
that came with influxes of immigrants, producers made a concerted
effort to make muscles more mainstream in the US, which
seems to have paid off. It did not come without consequences,

(20:20):
but were paid off. Yeah. In the nineteen seventies, muscle
fishing technology improved, especially around suspended rope longlines. That same decade,
hatchery produced seeds were used in China for the first time.
Back on the environmental side, in nineteen seventy five, the

(20:41):
Muscle Watch, as like an official way of monitoring global
oceanic ecosystems was proposed though though yeah, note that this
does involve many species of muscles, not just blue muscles. Yeah, right,
r right, and then jumping way ahead. In two thousand

(21:03):
and six, researchers out of the University of New Hampshire
discovered that the local blue muscle had evolved new defense
mechanisms to combat an invasive predator, the Asian shore crab,
in only fifteen years. So when this species of crab
invaded the East coast of the US, they were more

(21:23):
aggressive and stronger than a lot of the predators the
local blue muscle population had faced, so they didn't really
have a way to defend themselves against these crabs. However,
they evolved so that when they detect the presence of
a crab, they grow a thicker shell in a few months,
which makes it harder for the crab to crack it
open and eat them. This whole thing made headlines because

(21:46):
typically evolving like that takes way longer, like way, way
way longer than that, and it's so interesting. I really
recommend the whole article about how they were able to
test this, and also just the defense mechanism is very interesting.
It's like a chemical that the muscle picks up on
in the water and it's like oh, it's like oh no,

(22:08):
correct and thread like yeah. The energy from procreating goes
into making the crab thicker. It's really a big crafficker.
It goes into making the shell thicker. So it's really
really interesting. Huh. Yeah, highly recommend, highly recommend. According to

(22:29):
a twenty sixteen report, the wild blue muscle population along
the Gulf coastline, which in this case, because I'm from
the South, I was like what no, In this case,
it means Cape God to the Canadian border has declined
by sixty percent. On top of that, these muscles now
cover less than fifteen percent of the intertidal zone compared

(22:50):
to the two thirds that they used to cover. Researchers
believe that this is due to the warming climate and overharvesting.
Acidification is also weakening those bissile threads trains. They can't
hold on. Yeah, they can't stay lodged as as well
as they used to. Yeah. Um, there is a bunch

(23:12):
of research into into those bissile threads, a for like
materials science, because the way that they're constructed is really fascinating.
It's it's like a really uh it's really complex scaffolding
of proteins and this and this glue that necessarily works underwater.
So it's that's pretty cool. Um. Another cool thing. Research

(23:36):
has shown that these bissile threads collect metals from the
water um like hypothetically to strengthen themselves makes sense. But
it's possible that scientists could collect bissile threads that are
either a byproduct of the seafood industry or just of

(23:56):
natural populations and use them to purify metal polluted water.
Oh that is cool. Yeah yeah, oh oh muscles, oh, muscles.
I did not know that we would spend as much
of this episode talking about muscle beards as but I've

(24:24):
loved it. I've loved it. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yes, well,
I think that's what we have to say about blue
muscles for now. It is. It is. We would love
to hear from you, though, And speaking of we do
have some listener mail for you, and we will get
into that after we get back from one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.

(24:53):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with yeah, yeah,
yeah muscles. I tried to get to the bottom of
the etymology, and then I got so confused I didn't
even look. Okay, all right, yeah, there is some theory

(25:13):
that it has to do with like muscle musculature. Yeah,
but it sounded like no one was too sure about it.
I'll see if I can look into it and maybe
provide an update. Yes, hopefully, Okay, Mike roate catching up
on some recent episodes, and I just finished listening to
the Sherry episode and I knew I had to write in.

(25:36):
My wife and I live at knew the Fingerlakes wine
region here in central New York and frequent the area
very often, and one of our favorite wineries, Ravines Wine Cellars,
actually produces a sherry style fortified dry wine. We fell
in love with it as a nightcap type of drink
enjoyed neat just a few years ago when Ravenes released
their inaugural vintage of it. The winery fittingly calls it

(26:00):
or Yeah Yeah, and it's always a fun one to
share with newcomers to the style when we have guests
over at our place if we happen to have it
on hand. I also always get a good laugh watching
the faces of unsuspecting visitors at the winery when they
choose the Floor as part of their tasting and clearly
had no clue what they were getting themselves into. Now

(26:22):
that Ravines just recently released their second vintage of Floor,
I'm super curious about trying it as a substitute for
whiskey in an old fashioned or Manhattan style cocktail, which
are typically my go tos after listening to the episode.
Thanks for all the nerding out and deep dives you
continue to do. We love the episodes and it's always
been a great many escape from real life for us

(26:43):
to enjoy. Ps I'd be remiss not to link to
the floor on Ravene's website, as the bottle only costs
thirty dollars in case you'd like to try even better.
My admittedly biased opinion is that you should absolutely come
visit in the Finger Lakes region in the future. Incredible
food beverage seen with a primary focus on all local
ingredients and sourcing as true to farm to table as

(27:05):
anywhere in the country, and beautifully moderate temperatures during the
late spring through early autumn. Well worth a trip. Ah
yeah right, Okay, great craving like some nice weather we've had.

(27:26):
Really our weather in Atlanta has been bouncing all over
the place, is what I'll say. That is true as
Atlanta is want to do um. But the past couple
days for sure have been just aggressively gorgeous, just very nice,
just sunny and like and like cool, without being cold. Yeah. Yeah,

(27:47):
it's making me again. I've been I've been craving fresh
seafood for a while, enjoyed outside with a collapse of
wine or something that's I need that my life soon.
So yeah. And I bet that like a nice dry
white sherry would be so good with muscles, yes, oh
my gosh, and in like the sauce. Yeah, okay, alright,

(28:12):
alright goals. U Uric wrote listen to the Box episode
this morning and loved it. The puns were amazing, so
many good ones and yeased boop. Anyway, it brought back
memories A box are great, but as you mentioned, you
don't see them all that often. I looked at my
untapped list and I've only had nineteen out of the

(28:34):
one thousand, three hundred and fifty plus unique I've checked
in don't worry, drink responsibly. That number is over nine years,
nine nine plus years. Also, I like to do tasting flights.
Now I'm going to be on a search for more Box.
They can be wonderfully bretty at times and are definitely
an enjoyable drink. Also, love Elle Lauren keeps giving the

(28:57):
DM ideas. Can't wait to hear how that turns out.
Oh no, I can't wait to either. Oh, I can't
wait either. I have like the the long Con is
finally coming. Oh god, oh my gosh, I'm so oh no,
I'm all based on something you said, oh perhaps years ago.

(29:24):
I look, okay, I know, I know that it's collaborative
storytelling that we are doing together, that it's not truly
you versus us, but sometimes it's you versus us and
I and you are a very kind and gentle DM,

(29:44):
and I don't think that you're going to do anything.
You're not going to, like, erm, the party, like you're
not going to kill us all horribly or anything like
that unless we do something very very very silly. Um.
But but I also fear and and I think rightfully
because I understand the kind of stories that you tell,

(30:06):
and sometimes they really go places. They certainly new we're
going places, Lauren, I kind of wait, oh cool, yeah cool? Well,
And also related, I do try to do related like
themed beers. Yeah, whatever session we're doing. And I was

(30:28):
looking the other day for whenever we get to play next,
but I was looking for box and I could really
only Finlin two or three, so and that was that
like a specialty store. Yeah, not just like a grocery store.
So it is kind of I did not have as

(30:48):
much success as I thought I was going to have.
But hmm um. Sometimes yeah, yeah, they can be a
little bit hidden away. But also right, yeah, they're they're
just a less popular style than many others. Certainly, when
I was talking to one of my beer friends about
the boch episode, he was like, well, we should just
go to Brickstore in Decatur. It's brick store being if

(31:12):
you have not heard of it, I assume that everyone
in the country who's into beer has because it's typically
listed like at the top of beer bars in the country.
But yeah, he was like, oh, yeah, they have this
one on this one and this one over there, so
we can go. Kay, good to know. Yeah, I will
say a lot of you listeners have written in about box,

(31:34):
so it struck a chord. Heck yeah, heck yeah yeah,
So keep those keep those messages coming, any recommendations, keep
those coming. If you have muscle recipes, oh yeah, I've
never cooked muscles myself. No, I don't think I have either,
and I'm ready all right, yeah, let's tell yeah, please

(32:00):
let us know. You can email us. Thanks to both
of these listeners who already did, but you can. Our
email is hello at saborpod dot com. We are also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
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from you. Sabor is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more
podcasts from my Heart Radio. You can visit the iHeartRadio app,

(32:23):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
where good things are coming your way