1. GETTING THE MEAT
Only extract the meat immediately before you will start processing it (boiling etc.). Do not let it stand for hours. The fresher the clams (they should be still alive when starting to prepare them), the better the end product.
Open the giant clams by cutting the muscle. Try not to damage the mantle or the muscle more than necessary or your product will look less attractive.
Gather all the animals in a clean bucket or basket and bring them indoors without delay. Out of the sun and away from files and dust. It is preferable to process in an air-conditioned room.
2. MAKING THE RIGHT PIECES OF CLAM MEAT
When working with food products, work always with clean materials. The table, cutting board, knife, pots and colanders in which you store the meat should be washed before and after every processing. Otherwise bacteria will gather and infect your products, causing it to spoil more quickly.
Take a clam and cut through the holes of the coloured sides so you can easily see and reach the insides.
Cut the adductor muscle loose from the mantle.
Lift the guts and muscle out of the mantle and cut loose the remaining attachments.
Separate the muscle from the guts and scrub off all the remains of the kidney.
Split the muscle in two without separating the pieces.
You now have the mantle and the muscle ready for boiling. You can smoke the guts as well (remove the kidney and scrub well) but there should be no holes in the guts. Otherwise eat them for dinner or give them to your friends.
Rinse the pieces under tap water and allow to drain.
3. BOILING
In a large pot, bring plenty of water to the boil with 70 grams of salt per liter of water.
When it boils, put in the pieces of clam meat and watch the water.
When boiling bubbles appear again, lower the fire (especially if you are using the guts as well) and count ten minutes.
After ten minutes of boiling, drain through a colander (or clean basket) and leave to cool.
3. MARINATING
Make a sufficient stock of dry seasoning mixture. Mix together the ingredients in the following proportions: for every kilogram of sugar, add 360 grams of salt and 40 grams of Ajinomoto (or Ve-Tsin powder). Mix well and store for further use.
When the meat is cool, weigh it. Now, for every kilogram of cooked clam meat, add 350 grams of the dry seasoning mixture. Mix well with the clam meat until all sides of the meat are covered with the mixture.
In a bucket or basin, stack the pieces of clam, layer after layer. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture that didn't stick to the clam meat between the layers.
Cover the meat with a plate or lid that does not touch the sides of the bucket and put heavy weights on top of it (pack the weights in plastic bags for cleanliness and safety, lead e.g. is poisonous and should never come in contact with the meat).
Leave overnight in a cool place. The next morning, liquid should have formed in the bucket. Shake of the remains of the mixture, drain for five minutes and weigh the meat again. You should have lost around 10% of the weight. If it's less, you didn't have enough pressure on the meat, if it's more, you had too much weight on it. Adjust it the next time.
3. DRYING
Hang the mantle rings over the tenter rods which you will have cleaned beforehand. Skewer the adductor muscle on the rods.
Now you need to have your smoker ready. For the construction of this, see Appendix 2.
You will need small dry wood for this. Pay attention not to use wood which has been treated, varnished or painted, also, do not use softwood such as pine or some species of tree that are toxic. Casuarina, coconut, mangrove tree or fruit trees are generally suitable types of wood.
Make a small fire. When the first fierce fire is subdued, you can put the smoker on top, raised about 5 10 cm from the ground on stones and start drying.
Hang the rods in the smoker, paying attention that the pieces do not touch each other or the side of the smoker. Where they touch, they will not colour well.
The top of the smoker must remain open at this stage. The bit of smoke which will occur will sufficiently deter the flies from sitting on the meat.
Control the temperature: the sides of the smoker should not become hot. Feel the rods inside the smoker at regular intervals, they should never feel hot. If too hot, reduce the fire.
To test for dryness, take the rods out and feel the underside of the meat: it should feel dry, with no drops moistening your fingers.
This should take up to 45 minutes to 1 hour.
4. SMOKING
When the meat is sufficiently dry, remove the stones from under the smoker to reduce air intake.
Now cover the smoker with the plywood plate or a mat or sack.
Make smoke: sprinkle sawdust over the burning wood until you don't see any fire.
Sawdust: Again, only sawdust from untreated non-toxic hardwoods should be used. Ask the sawmill where you get the sawdust! When in doubt, use sawdust which has been laying outside for some months, any harmful products will have leached out by that time. The sawdust can be moist, but not soaked, as this would put out the fire.
Close the opening in the side of the smoker with a plate.
There should be no fire at the beginning, at the end of the smoking process, temperature can be higher.
Control the smoke every 20–30 minutes. If there is fire visible, add sawdust, if the fire is going out, do not waste time but build another fire next to the smoker and when well smoking, put the smoker over the new fire.
Smoke for 4 to 5 hours, there should always be plenty smoke. If the meat colours unevenly, change the position of the meat now and then.
After smoking take the meat inside an air-conditioned room to cool.
Weigh the product: you should have lost around 25% of the weight.
5. PACKING & STORING THE PRODUCT
You can keep the smoked clam in a cool room for some time but of course, it will keep longer when kept in the fridge.
Cool the meat unpacked in the fridge, and when cold, put it in plastic bags or wrap it. Do not pack before cooling, as there will form condensation water inside the plastic, and a wet product will spoil quicker.
The product can probably be frozen and thawed without too many problems.
6. PRESENTATION
To serve the product, make long slices at an angle to the meat. Slice as thinly as possible, about 2 mm thick.
Do not slice the product long time before serving as it will dry out and loose its taste.
