Cockle (bivalve) - in Cuisine and Culture

In Cuisine and Culture

Cockles are a popular type of edible shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are collected by raking them from the sands at low tide. However, collecting cockles is hard work and, as seen from the Morecambe Bay disaster, in which 23 illegal immigrants died, can be dangerous if local tidal conditions are not carefully watched. In England, the Magna Carta grants every citizen the right to collect up to eight pounds of cockles from the foreshore. However, pickers wishing to collect more than eight pounds are deemed to be engaging in commercial fishing and are required to obtain a permit from the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority.

Cockles are sold freshly cooked as a snack in the United Kingdom, particularly in those parts of the British coastline where cockles are abundant. Boiled, then seasoned with malt vinegar and white pepper, they can be bought from seafood stalls, which also often have for sale mussels, whelks, jellied eels, crabs and shrimps. Cockles are also available pickled in jars, and more recently, have been sold in sealed packets (with vinegar) containing a plastic two-pronged fork. A meal of cockles fried with bacon, served with laver bread, is known as a traditional Welsh breakfast.

Boiled cockles (sometimes grilled) are sold at many hawker centers in Southeast Asia, and are used in laksa, char kway teow and steamboat. They are called kerang in Malay and see hum in Hokkien.

Consumption of raw cockles has been linked to hepatitis.

Cockles are an effective bait for a wide variety of sea fishes.

The folk song "Molly Malone" is also known as "Cockles and Mussels" because the title character's sale of the two foods is referenced in the song's refrain.

They are also mentioned in the English nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary".

• Empty cockle shell on the beach

• Bags of cockles picked from Morecambe Bay

• Boiled "cockles" served in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore are actually ark clams in the family Arcidae