Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
common razor shell
A squirt of salt water brings it out of its hole in two seconds.
- Opened on a plancha with garlic and parsley
- Marinière, barely a few minutes
- Raw, finely sliced, when very fresh
- In French
- Couteau commun
- Scientific name
- Ensis ensis
- In the water
- Buried in a vertical burrow in fine or muddy sand, from the low shore into the shallows; recorded to 60 m.
- Season & buying
- Autumn and winter; only consume safety-certified product.
- Common length
- ~13 cm
- How to identify it
- Long narrow shell, like a razor handle
Slightly curved, greenish brown
Keyhole-shaped hole in the sand at low tide
On the plate
Sweet, crisp flesh with a clean marine taste.
Avoid: Long cooking, which makes the flesh tough and rubbery.
Razor clams can dig rapidly into the sand using their powerful foot and are challenging to harvest.
In Umay recipes
2 Umay recipes call for it.
