Skip to content
FriendsPantry

Fish & seafood · Molluscs

Conch

Large sea snail with firm, sweet, chewy meat; pounded and fried, stewed or 'cooked' in lime as conch salad.

Also called: caracol, queen conch, lambí

Around the world: caracol (es)

A kind of shellfish

2 recipes with it

What it is

Conch is a large marine snail (queen conch) with a pink spiral shell. The meat is pale, firm and mildly sweet, similar to clam or abalone, and very tough unless pounded thin, finely chopped or cooked slowly. It is a staple in the Bahamas and the Caribbean, sold cleaned and often frozen.

How it’s used

  • Conch fritters and cracked (fried) conch
  • Conch salad cured in lime juice
  • Stews and curries (lambí in Haiti, caracol in Honduras)
  • Chowders

Characteristics

Taste
Sweet and mildly briny.
Texture
Firm and chewy; tender when pounded or slow-cooked.
When cooked
Tenderise by pounding or pressure-cooking; quick frying works only for thin, pounded pieces.
Sold as
fresh, frozen
Cooking uses
Commonly cooked, Suitable for frying, Usually eaten raw

Storage

Frozen. Usually sold frozen; thaw in the fridge and cook within a day.

Diet, allergens and safety

Contains Molluscs.

  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Dairy-free
  • Egg-free
  • Gluten-free
  • Nut-free
  • Soy-free
  • Caffeine-free
  • Contains molluscs, a recognised allergen separate from crustaceans; some people react to both.
  • Lime-cured conch salad is not cooked; it carries the risks of raw shellfish for vulnerable groups.

Nutrition per 100 g

Energy
137 kcal
Protein
23.84 g
Carbohydrate
7.76 g
Fat
0.4 g
Fibre
0 g
Sugars
0 g

USDA FoodData Central: Mollusks, whelk, unspecified, raw (a close stand-in).

Substitutes

Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.

  • Clams — Chopped clam meat in fritters and chowders.
  • Squid — In stews and fritters; softer.

Related ingredients

Recipes with conch

More molluscs