Good conch should be white with pink and orange edges. Avoid conch with a grayish color. Like other seafood, conch should not smell fishy. If there are any dark pieces of skin, trim them off. Because of its firm texture, conch needs to be tenderized before being cooked. This can be accomplished by placing the meat between pieces of plastic wrap and giving it a good pounding with a mallet. How much is too much? Don’t beat it to a pulp — smooth and flatten it to the desired thickness.

When it comes to cooking conch, treat it like squid: either barely cook it, or cook the heck out of it. After heating briefly, conch will begin to toughen until essentially inedible. However, after being cooked for a while (simmered for about an hour in a stew, for example) the conch will come back, tender again.

Caribbean Conch Fritters with Island Hot Sauce

Canola oil
1/4 pound conch meat, cleaned, cooked, and small diced
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon garlic
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cups flour
Hot red pepper sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 quart vegetable oil, for frying.

Essence, recipe follows
Island Hot Sauce, recipe follows

In a saute pan, add canola oil and heat. Add the conch, onion, and garlic and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. p Make the batter by combining the eggs, milk, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, beating and incorporating until all is used and the batter is smooth. Season with hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Stir in the parsley and the cooled conch mixture.

Heat the oil to 360 degrees F. Drop the batter, a heaping tablespoon at a time, into the oil. When the fritters pop to the surface, roll them around in the oil to brown them evenly. Remove and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with Essence. Serve with Island Hot Sauce.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container. Yield: about 2/3 cup

Island Hot Sauce:
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 Scotch bonnet peppers, halved and seeds and stems removed
Vegetable oil
Water, to cover
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, add more or less, to taste
Kosher salt

Sweat the onion, carrots and peppers in vegetable oil until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Cover with water and add vinegar. Simmer until the carrots are very tender. Puree in a blender and season, to taste, with vinegar, and salt. Thin, as necessary, with more water.

Crispy Pan Fried Conch with Citrus Sauce

1/2 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Key Lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 pieces conch, 1/2 per person Flour, for dusting
1 egg, beaten with 3 tablespoons water, for egg wash
Bread crumbs
Olive Oil, for pan frying

Combine spiced rum, orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, and sugar and reduce on high heat until syrupy. Keep warm. Dip the conch in flour, then egg wash, then in bread crumbs. Cook on medium heat in olive oil until golden. Serve with citrus sauce and garnish with cilantro and fresh flowers if available.

Bahama Conch Chowder

INGREDIENTS:
12 ea conch
3 large mild red or white onions
2 small green peppers
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme
4 piece bay leaves
2 tsp sugar
4 cup fresh milk or evaporated milk
3 cup diced boiled potatoes
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup sherry, madeira, or marsala
Salt and freshly ground pepper

STEP BY STEP:
Skin conchs, pound with a mallet as if pounding veal cutlet, and cut into 1 1/2-inch squares. Chop onions and green peppers

Cook onions and peppers in oil until tender. Cover conch meat with water in a large kettle, then add garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and sugar

Simmer until conch is sweetly tender. Add milk and potato dice, stirring potato in gently. Add onions and green peppers. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Mix butter and flour to make beurre manié and use as much as needed to thicken the chowder. Add wine at the last. Serve with pilot biscuit, dried in the oven.

Conch Ceviche

*note: the conch steak is much easier to slice when it is frozen.

The Conch Book

The Caribbean Compass review;
This sumptuously illustrated and exhaustively researched book tells you everything you'll ever need to know about the Queen Conch.

Islands Magazine review;
THE CONCH BOOK is guaranteed to make an honorary conchologist out of anyone - and whet your taste for the mollusk.

Book Description
Lavishly illustrated with pen & ink drawings, The Conch Book tells the life story of the beautiful pink-lipped shellfish that is a staple of West Indian cuisine. History, mariculture, Bahamian conching techniques, cleaning and cooking the conch are all included.