Why Mussels Are The Ultimate Soup Flavor-Booster

There are few foods as evocative as a bowl of steamed mussels. Gleaming shells in soothing, fragrant broth, they're well worth the labor-intensive effort required to liberate each bite from its encasement, and deserving of the extra space their discard demands atop a table. But, relatively quick as they are to make, they're still A Project, what with all the debearding, precise timing, and big pot hauling (not to mention washing) it takes to clean mussels perfectly every time. So it's nice to impart a little bit of that bivalve delight into other, lower lift items.

Making mussels more of an everyday affair can be as easy as incorporating a can into your sophisticated and impressive tinned fish "charcuterie" board. It can also be as easy as using them as a soup booster. Mussels are, in concept, not unlike anchovies, in that they can transfer their qualities while barely being detected. (So, as always, be aware of any allergies among your eating audience.) Like anchovies can bring their umami properties to all kinds of recipes, so, too, can the mussel bring its gentle salinity and near-sweetness to a dish. Mussels will have an effect that you just can't quite duplicate with something like salt or even bonito flakes. Not to mention their irrepressible texture; that's one component that can't hide.

Is musseling your soup as simple as literally just dropping them in with some ramen? Sure, why not. You can add the pre-made, canned pantry variety of muscles to virtually anything savory, versatile as it is. But mussels have tons more applications that bring their mild taste of the sea to all manner of clear and creamy soup categories in their more complete form.

While many preparations call for the mussels to be cooked first, and any resulting liquid used to build the soup, others add whole, closed mussels right into the mix toward the end of the cook time. They will then typically open the same way they would if you were steaming them the pared down way. Added last, they will also absorb the flavor of said soup, rather than imparting their own brininess alone. This will be more successful with those lighter bases, however, as they're more conducive to the simmering and steaming necessary for mussels to pop.