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Cockle (bivalve)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Empty cockle shell
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Acanthocardia |
Cockle is the common name for bivalve mollusks of the family Cardiidae. Shells of various species of cockles are commonly found on many beaches throughout the world. The distinctive rounded shells of cockles are symmetrical, heart-shaped when viewed from the end, and in most but not all genera there are numerous pronounced ribs.
The mantle has three apertures (inhalant, exhalant, and pedal) for siphoning water and for the foot to protrude. Cockles typically burrow using the foot, and feed by siphoning water in and out, sifting plankton from it. They are also capable of 'jumping' by bending and straightening the foot. Unlike most bivalves, cockles are hermaphroditic and reproduce quickly.
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Cockles are a popular type of edible shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are still collected, as they have been since time immemorial, by raking them from the sands at low tide. However, the labour of collecting cockles is hard and, as seen from the Morecambe Bay disaster, in which 21 illegal immigrants died, can be dangerous if local tidal conditions are not carefully watched.
Cockles are sold freshly cooked as a snack food in the United Kingdom, and are eaten with vinegar. Seafood stalls sell them along with mussels, whelks, and eels. They are also available pickled in jars and, more recently, they are sold in convenient sealed packets (with vinegar) containing a plastic two-pronged fork.
Boiled cockles are sold at many hawker centers in South East Asia, and are used in laksa, char kway teow and steamboat (food).
Consumption of raw cockles has been linked to hepatitis.[1]
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 titular character's sale of the two foods is referenced in the song's refrain.
There are more than 200 living species of cockles, with many more fossil forms.[2]
The Common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) is widely distributed around the coastline of the British Isles and Norway, with a range extending to the Barents Sea in the north and as far south as Senegal.
The Dog cockle (Glycymeris glycymeris) has a similar range and habitat to the Common cockle, but is unrelated. It is inedible due to its toughness when cooked, although a process is being developed to solve this.[3] The Blood Cockle (Anadara granosa) is extensively cultured from southern Korea to Malaysia.[4]
An example of group of cockles that are smooth, without ribs, is the genus Laevicardium. These are often known as egg cockles.
The now relatively uncommon English phrase 'it warms the cockles of my heart', is used to signify delight. A number of differing derivations of this phrase have been proposed, either directly from the perceived heart-shape of a cockleshell, or indirectly (the zoological name for one cockle genus being Cardium, from the Greek for heart), or from the Latin diminutive of the word heart, corculum. Another proposed derivation is from the Latin for the ventricles of the heart, cochleae cordis, where the second word is an inflected form of cor, heart, while cochlea is the Latin for snail.
- ^ O'Mahony; Gooch, Smyth, et al. (1983). Epidemic hepatitis A from cockles. NIH. Retrieved on 2006-03-25.
- ^ http://shells.tricity.wsu.edu/ArcherdShellCollection/Bivalvia/Cardiidae.html
- ^ "Tenderisation of the dog cockle (Glycymeris glycymeris) meat by polyphosphates"
- ^ http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AB718E/AB718E01.htm