Mussels are a delicately flavored seafood item that offer high levels of protein, iron and manganese. To ensure your safety and the best possible flavor of your food, select only mussels that are closed. Discard any open mussels before cooking. To eat your mussels in a traditional manner, find an empty shell. Use it like tongs to pull the mussel meat out of other shells and then place the mussel meat in your mouth. Rather than discarding leftover mussels, put them in the refrigerator and reheat them later. They have a tendency to dry out when reheated, however, so you must do this gently.
With Broth
Remove the mussels from the broth and set aside.
Pour the broth into the saucepot and put it on the stove. Bring the broth to a full boil.
Remove the saucepan containing the broth from the heat as soon as the broth has started to boil. Return the mussels to the saucepan.
Swirl the saucepan or stir the mussels to ensure that the near-boiling broth comes into contact with all of the mussels. This will reheat the mussel meat without drying it out or overcooking it, both of which can result in chewy, rubbery mussels.
With Something Other Than Broth
Remove the mussels from the dish that accompanies them (for example, pasta) and set them aside.
Heat the dish that accompanies your mussels. You may do this either on the stove, in the oven or in the microwave depending on the dish. Heat the food until it is very hot; lukewarm food will not help to reheat the mussels.
Remove the mussels from their shells as you are reheating the accompanying dish.
Remove the accompanying dish from the heat and stir in the de-shelled mussels. Stir well to ensure that all of the mussels come into solid contact with the hot dish. The heat of the dish will reheat the mussels.
Alone
Remove the mussels from their shells if you absolutely must reheat them alone.
Place the mussels into a microwave-safe dish. Cover the dish with a damp paper towel. Use as small a dish as you can to hold all of the mussels to lessen their tendency to dry out.
Microwave your mussels on 30 percent power for 15 seconds at a time, checking them after each interval, until they are as hot as you desire.
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Writer Bio
Morgan O'Connor has been writing professionally since 2005. Her experience includes articles on various aspects of the health-insurance industry for health-care newsletters distributed to hospitals as well as articles on both international and domestic travel.