I decided i'd be brave last night & went & bought cockles from tesco lotaaaaar (they had no mussels).They cooked them at tescos & we took them away.

I'm no chef,but i was hoping to cook them in their shells or rather their juices,with garlic & cream,but after opening a few i'm glad i didnt as there was quite abit of grey goo inside alot of them that i could imagine looked something like toxic waste.Not that i think ive ever seen toxic waste on my travels,& in the end i agreed with my girlfreind that it was just cockle poo,but it stopped us reheating & cooking them with the garlic & cream with juices.In the end we rinsed them so much that there wasnt as much flavour as i'd hoped.

Would any of you chefs cook these shelfish or others straight away with the shells on,or is that something reserved for mussels?

Also they didnt open like mussels do after cooking.I'm thinking thats normal though?

The guts have been ok today

Try to avoid comsuming cooked products from supermarkets like that especailly seafood. Those kind of food are not fresh and sometimes (nearly) out of shelf-life.

For example, fresh mussels will be sold on the shelf for 3 days and the day 4th those mussles will be cooked and sell on a foam plate.

If they don't open, don't eat them!

Try to avoid comsuming cooked products from supermarkets like that especailly seafood. Those kind of food are not fresh and sometimes (nearly) out of shelf-life.

For example, fresh mussels will be sold on the shelf for 3 days and the day 4th those mussles will be cooked and sell on a foam plate.

This is most disturbing Bambi! I take it this is common in these big stores?

I think the OP means that they were bought fresh from the bins and then had them cooked there, not that they were already cooked. Any supermarket precooked food is dodgy, I think.

Anyway, my husband LOVES those little cockles, and regularly buys them from Lotus. If he has them cooked there they always come with lots of gunk inside.

But, if he does them at home, he soaks them in a sink full of water with chilis and salt. That seems to suck all the gunk out of them or dissolve it or something and then they're nice and clean inside.

Cheers,

TT