What Is Conch Meat? (6 Nutrients You Didn’t Know It Had)

When I vacationed in the Bahamas a few years back, a local chef made the best conch meat I’ve ever tried.

As I later discovered, many coastal regions are home to this increasingly well-liked seafood, frequently served as an appetizer or entree.

I was curious to know what conch meat was and if it was nutritionally beneficial, so I devoted some time to learning more about it.

Here’s what I’ve discovered.

Quick Summary

What is Conch Meat?

Conch meat is a form of seafood typically considered gourmet in Caribbean countries like South America.

It is obtained from conchs, sea snails with an outer whorl roughly triangular shape and a wide lip that frequently protrudes toward its peak.

Conch meat is pink and white in appearance, and it can be eaten raw or cooked. Queen conch meat is frequently used in meals like queen conch salad, stewed conch, conch chowder, and conch fritters.

If you're searching for a legitimate source to purchase your conch meat, ButcherBox is my tried and true meat delivery option because they offer sustainably sourced seafood.

Nutritional Value of Conch Meat

Conch is consumed as seafood all over the world. It is nourishing and contains vitamins and minerals [1].

Here’s its nutritional profile:

1. Protein

Conch is rich in protein, aside from vitamins and minerals.

You get roughly 33.4 grams of protein when you eat a 127-gram cup of cooked conch. And on a per-100-gram basis, this quantity of protein equates to around 26.3 grams.

2. Vitamin B12

Compared to most seafood, stew conch is an even greater source of vitamin B12.

The FDA recommends 2.4 mcg of vitamin B12 daily, yet a 127-gram cup of cooked conch has 6.67 mcg of this essential nutrient. Note that 6.67 mcg is equal to 278% of the daily requirement.

Red blood cells, which carry oxygen and DNA, are both produced with the help of vitamin B12 [2].

3. Magnesium

Magnesium controls many bodily processes, like supporting muscle function and energy production [3].

A 127-gram cup serving of cooked conch has 302 mg of magnesium, which is 72% of the daily required amount.

4. Few Calories

Conch not only delivers a substantial amount of nutrients but is also low in calories.

The calories in a 127-gram cup of cooked conch are 165. In terms of calories per 100 grams, this barely amounts to 130.

This caloric composition is even fewer calories per gram than cooked salmon, which has 206 calories per 100 grams [4].

From this, it's clear that conch is a nutrient powerhouse.

Related Articles:

• Low-Calorie Meats
• Which Meat Has the Most Protein?
• What Is the Healthiest Meat to Eat?

The Best Way to Prepare Conch Meat

Here's what you need to do when removing conch shells before cooking them properly.

Shelling Out Conch Meat

The conch's shell is spiky and sharp, so be careful how you hold it.

1. Before starting the shelling process, you'll need to immerse the snail in saline/salted water and soak it for about 20 minutes.

2. After soaking, yank on the snail's body via the primary entrance of the conch shell. If you can't easily pull the snail out, you may need to bore a hole into the shell's upper half. Drilling a tiny hole aids in breaking the snail's grip on its shell.

3. Once you extract the snail's body from the huge cracked conch shell, there's another shell-like covering on the snail that you should remove. This layer comes off easily; pull it off using your hands.

4. Before cooking the conch, remove any digestive glands in the snail.

Also Read: Smoked Shotgun Shells

Cooking Conch Meat

After removing your conch meat from the shell, the next step is to tenderize it before cooking.

Whatever method you choose to prepare your conch must be soft before eating or cooking.

These are three easy ways to tenderize conch meat:

• Pounding with a meat tenderizer
• Boiling in a large pot of salty water for at least 60 minutes over medium heat
• Splitting into thinner strips

After tenderizing your conch meat, pretty much any cooking method works, depending on your recipe.

You can stew, braise, bread, sauté, or fry conch meat and serve it with side dishes like fries and mayo dipping sauce.

When frying up cracked conch meat, I like to drizzle some lemon or any citrus juice to add a hint of acidity that complements the rich seafood profile.

Also Read: Best Seafood Recipes

What Does Conch Taste Like?

Conch tastes like any shellfish, but the taste is unique depending on the preparation method.

It has a mild, slightly sweet taste when eating conch meat alone. When chewed, its chewy texture is rubbery and squishy, and its flavor is mostly crab with undertones of salmon.

Although deep-fried conch has a strange and unusual flavor, it tastes like the sea, like any other shellfish. I would say it has a clam-like flavor without the fishy scent.

You can eat Bahamas conch raw as a salad or as a type of sushi. I love pairing this delicious seafood with salad greens or conch ceviche and any tangy vinaigrette that complements the conch's taste profile.

Another delicious way to eat conch is to dip it into wasabi-flavored soy sauce and eat it with Japanese rice.

"Dab it in a sauce with lime zest when eating raw conch. The sauce's tartness and sweetness slightly cooks the conch and enhances its flavor."
- Melvin Meyers, Executive Chef

FAQs

References:

1. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173720/nutrients
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15189115/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5926493/
4. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/175168/nutrients