URGENT: need help with frozen mussels!!

I bought fresh live mussels yesterday. I brought them home and put them in freezer. Today I brought them out of the freezer to cook them. I realized some of them are open. I didn't do the close shut test. I just started cleaning and bearding them. What do I do? Do I discard them? I can cook them now? What do I do? This photo is taken after I bearded them. I still haven't washed hem. Please help me!!

Sogol Salemi
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7 Comments

boulangere October 16, 2015
I'm curious; why did you immediately freeze them rather than refrigerating them overnight?
 
boulangere October 16, 2015
I'm curious; why did you immediately freeze them rather than refrigerating them overnight?
 
boulangere October 16, 2015
I have frozen mussels in the past, but only after they have been cooked, for future reference.
 
boulangere October 16, 2015
I have frozen mussels in the past, but only after they have been cooked, for future reference.
 
Maedl October 16, 2015
Opt for the safe side and throw them out. You can't determine if they were alive before you froze them and there is no point risking getting sick in case you had some bad ones. Mussels keep in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, so next time, don't freeze them. Check with the fish guy at the store--I think you need to be sure the mussels have access to oxygen, so you don't want a tightly sealed bag.
Even better, buy them the day you plan to use them.
 
Susan W. October 16, 2015
The tap close test wouldn't work on a frozen mussel. Just because they are open doesn't mean they are bad. We're they closed before you froze them? The freezing probably caused them to open. Is there a reason you froze them? It doesn't do them any favors. I don't have a definitive answer for you because I don't know their condition before you froze them. If you don't know, I'd toss them. They happily would have waited one day for you to cook them. I know it's no fun to toss something you were looking forward to, but there are too many unknowns here for me and I'm pretty brave when it comes to food.
 
Greenstuff October 16, 2015
So, here's the story: mussels gape when they are dead. If they were dead before you froze them, you wouldn't want to eat them. If they weren't already dead, then the freezing did the in. People differ on whether you can freeze uncooked mussels--but it's not something I would do myself.
 
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