Bahamian fishermen get conch out of the shell by banging a linear hole in the top of the shell with a hammer, hatchet, or better yet a machete!  I like a hammer and chisel, myself. The method is neat and fast and the tools are already in my tool box anyway.  I didn’t do too well when I tried the machete, and can’t personally recommend that method.  You can see where everyone else makes their hole by looking at some empty shells, better yet watch one of the locals.  As you count down from the top, the abductor muscle is between the third and fourth ring.  Make your hole big enough to put a knife blade in, about two inches long and about 1/4 inch wide.

Insert your knife into this hole and cut the abductor muscle inside.  You can then remove the meat through the large opening in the shell by pulling on the claw.

Now that you have the conch loose from his shell, here’s how you clean it.  The black claw is what he uses to move with. The conch extends his body forward and plants this claw in the sand and pulls his shell up to it.  That’s why they like soft bottoms.  The fleshy black and white mass is viscera, and is no good to eat.  First, cut all the viscera away, leaving the gray and white muscle mass.  Place the remaining carcass with the eyes face up to you and the claw directly away from you. Now cut off the projection above the eyes  and the proboscis.  Also remove the esophagus which runs under the skin from the base of the proboscis to the ragged edge of the muscle.

Next, cut a line from the back section of the claw’s non-pointed side to the ragged edge of the muscle.  Then use your thumb to work under the leathery skin and peel it off. Next, cut off the claw and slit the rest of it into two steaks. It is important not to cut off the claw before you peel off the skin.  You need the claw to hold, while you’re pulling on the skin.  These conch steaks are very tough, and must be tenderized.  You need a “conch hammer”, or as they call it in the states, a meat tenderizer (the wooden or metal mallet-not the powder in the jar).  Bring one with you.  Mr. Wilensky described how the Bahamian people do this with a coke bottle on a rock.  I wouldn’t recommend this, besides, it’s hard to find glass coke bottles now.  I have used a beer bottle in an emergency, but I used it with a wooden cutting board not a rock, I don’t think the beer bottles are as thick as the old Coke bottles. 

Queen conch shells are favored ornaments.  The aperture, or opening into the first whorl in the shell may be as much as 12 inches long.  If you have a conch, whose shell is particularly attractive, don’t knock the hole in the shell! Place the whole conch in a pot of sea water and gentle bring the water to a boil for 5 to 15 minutes.  The conch will turn loose of the shell, tease the dead conch out of the shell with a knife or a fork.  Your shell will be intact and your catch still edible.  An alternate method is to freeze the whole shell overnight, thaw it in the morning and tease the succulent escargot out as described above. 

As you’re cleaning the conch, always eat some of it raw. Not only will it put “pep in your step” (add to your virility) as the Bahamian people say, it will assure you that the meat is sweet. Save some of the scraps for fish bait!