Skip to main content
Main

Fish. Clams.

Clams coated in cornmeal, marinated overnight, boiled, and served on the shell with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Fish. Clams.

Ingredients

Directions

Purge the clams

  1. Place fresh clams in a bushel basket and sift 1 pint of yellow cornmeal among them.

  2. Cover the basket and let sit overnight.

  3. The next day, rinse the clams with a pail of clear cold water.

  4. Add another pint of cornmeal.

  5. Let sit for another day.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a kettle.

  2. Wash the clams well and pour them into the boiling water.

  3. Boil until the shells open.

  4. Transfer to a large pan.

  5. Once cool, remove half the shell.

  6. Serve on the other half with a little coarse sea salt.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fresh clams
Provide the main protein; their shells open when cooked, signalling they are done.
Yellow cornmeal
Absorbed by the clams during resting, helping them release grit and sand from their bodies.

The step that matters

Boil until the shells open. Clams are done when their shells open. Overcooking toughens the meat, so watch closely and remove them once they open.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes