It’s open!

The mussel season has been underway for two months already, but because of an old folk belief, interest in the bivalve only increases once there’s an ‘r’ in the month. And that is celebrated with National Mussel Week.

Until well into the last century, mussels could only be traded during the colder months due to a lack of refrigerated transport and storage facilities. Indeed, the months containing an ‘r’.

The ‘r’

During the months without an ‘r’, it was warm, meaning the mussels often spoiled on their way to their final destination. But the idea that you should still wait until September to eat your first mussel is, thanks to good refrigeration methods, just as stubbornly outdated as it is incorrect.

National Mussel Week: 2 through 10 September.

The only months in which you really should not touch a mussel are more or less May and June, because that is when the mussel beds are busy reproducing and then recovering from it.

Mussel Week

Because the mistaken idea about the ‘r’ is so persistent, the mussel lobby decided to hold National Mussel Week in the first available month containing an ‘r’. In September, then. This year, Mussel Week runs from 2 through 10 September and is therefore actually a nine-day mussel week.

That means extra attention for the mussel’s Zeeland origins. In addition, restaurants throughout the country serve a special mussel dish or menu at a reasonable price. From Amershof in Amersfoort to Bistro De Buik van Parijs in Zwolle. Check the website for all addresses.

Milk

Good to know: Some people are hypersensitive to mussels. Eating them can cause skin irritation and nausea, for example, due to the amount of protein, which is particularly high at the beginning of the mussel season and decreases slightly during the months with an ′r′. Do you suffer from this? Drink a glass (or two) of whole milk for relief, according to the official advice.

Is cooking mussels difficult? Not with this how-to by chef Walter van der Ven of Amsterdam restaurant Mossel en Gin.

Briny

Zeeland mussel farmers have one more thing to emphasize: do not cook carrots with the mussels, as they are sweet and counteract the briny flavor of the mussels. And that would be a shame.