Coques - Cockles.They are close cousins of the clam family. Cockles on Your French Seafood Menu.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 
Coques - Cockles
Photograph courtesy of Bernard Spragg. NZ
www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/9339728823/

      

    Cockles in France.

     

    For those new to cockles, they are a member of the clam family and will be on the menu in nearly every seafood restaurant.  On a fresh seafood platter, they may be served raw like clams or oysters and when cooked, they may be fried with garlic, served with pasta, cooked in white wine or grilled on skewers. Cooked cockles may also be cut up and served cold in salads, cooked with fish or other shellfish or served on their own with fresh mayonnaise.

   

   One word of warning: in French, the word coque also means shell.  So, on French menus, the word coque may also be used for œuf à la coque, boiled eggs or crabe préparé en coque, crab prepared in its shell, etc. With many references to shells on  French menus read carefully.

    For those who know old British and Irish pub songs the coques on your French menu are the same cockles that Sweet Molly Malone sang about in the street of Dublin's fair city. On French menus coques is the accepted name; however, local names such as Henon or Maillot may make the menu in fishing villages along France's Atlantic coast.
   

Cockles and Mussels

The song about Molly Malone has become a sort of unofficial anthem of the Dublin City, Ireland

This statue is a landmark at the corner of Grafton Street and Suffolk Street, Dublin.

Photograph courtesy of William Murphy
www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/217174095/

 

The color and shape of the cockle’s shell.

  

   When the cockles are on your table as part of a dish’s decoration the shells will vary from white to dark ivory, sometimes brown. They are somewhat triangular with pronounced ribs.

  

    

Cockle Shells

Photograph courtesy of Katja Schulz

www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/38470250434/  

         

Cockles on French Menus:

Fricassée Marinière de Coques Bretonnes aux Pâtes Fraiches- Cockles from Brittany stewed in white wine and served with fresh pasta.

A nice plate of cockles
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/4373648607/

  

  

Petite Salade d’Épinards aux Coques et Vinaigrette à la Noix – A small spinach salad served with cockles and flavored with a vinaigrette sauce made with walnut oil.

  

Risotto de Coquillages

This risotto included mussels, cockles and clams

Photograph courtesy of patrick janicek

www.flickr.com/photos/marsupilami92/33584640984/

  

Filet de Saint Pierre à la Plancha et Crémeux de Coques - Filet of John Dory; the fish. Cooked on a plancha, and served with a creamy cockle sauce. A plancha or planxa is a very thick iron plate much used in Basque and southwestern French cooking.

    

Cockle diggers

Photograph courtesy of Marine Stewardship Council Benelux

www.flickr.com/photos/msc-keurmerk/8289730887/

       

 The cockles on your plate or plates are not sea-farmed from birth like France’s oysters and mussels.  Cockles are gathered when fully grown, or gathered wild when young, and then re-sown in areas where there is plenty of their favorite food, plankton.

  

Where do the cockles on your plate come from?                      

France has its own cockles but not enough to meet even half the local demand. Nearly 50% of the local requirements are imported, a large part from the UK.  The most famous cockle growing area in the UK is Penclawdd in Wales on the Burry Estuary. From there the young cockles that will be re-sown, may only be gathered by hand to insure a sustainable source. \

Cockles in the UK.

  
    For over 100 years in the UK and Ireland, cockles were traditional pub fare as well as being a seaside favorite,  The usual recipe only required boiling in water with salt and pepper. When ready the cockles were sprinkled with vinegar and then eaten hot or cold. With or without with bread and butter.  Not any longer as cockles are returning to the British menu with celebrity chefs,  Now, like in France, cockles will be boiled, but that will probably be in an herb-based bouillon and the recipes leave salt, pepper, and vinegar behind.

       

Cockles are still on English seaside menus.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/
www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/16712796531/sizes/

  

Cockles in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan – escopinya), (Dutch -  hartschelpen), (German - herzmuschel), (Italian - cuore edule or vuori di mare), (Spanish - berberecho or croque).

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

-------------------------- 

Copyright 2010, 2017, 2019,2023

For information on the unpublished book behind this blog, write to Bryan Newman

at

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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