A seafood feast can be ruined by gritty mussels, but this fate is easily avoided with proper cleaning. Here's a trick to help ensure a grit-free experience.

Removing sand and grit stuck inside clams is an essential part of cooking them. Here’s how to clean clams the easy way.

As the flavor and texture of clams and mussels can differ greatly, it's generally not recommended to substitute clams for mussels (or vice versa), says Kilgore.

Clams are halfway buried in sand or riverbeds, which is why finding clams is called clam-digging. Mussels live in groups and attach themselves to a substrate using thin threads called byssal threads.