(01-08-2015, 04:46 PM)Kage Wrote: I may or may not be thinking of a clam bake either.Ooh. Pit or pot method? Either way, skip the crayfish and go with shell-on shrimp, mussels, and (if you have the money for it) a lobster or two. And seaweed.Â
*is from New England and grew up on clam bakes*
Really, though, you only need four or five items to enjoy clams. Clams (of course), water and/or beer, onions, and butter. Fill a large pot, stock pot, or steamer pot with an inch or so of water and/or beer -- you don't need to cover the clams with the liquid in order to cook them. Peel and chop onions into fourths, drop into pot. Carefully add clams to the pot, cover and bring to a boil. Cook for five to ten minutes or until shells pop wide open. Reserve some of the broth in a bowl, strain the clams (discarding any that haven't opened up) and spread them out on a table covered with a few layers of newspaper. Remove whole clam from shell, remove the... uhh... skin, give the clam a quick rinse in the bowl of broth, dip it in some melted butter, and get it in your mouth before it drips everywhere.
And if you've bought your clams from a store/market, don't worry about purging/cleaning them. They've already gone through that process. If you collect your own, put them in a bucket of sea water from where you gathered them and let them sit in it for several hours in a cool, dark place. Purging in fresh/tap water will kill your clams prematurely and result in more bad, unopened ones, and adding table salt won't make it 'sea water' enough. And cornmeal doesn't help purge.
