New England Clambake And Those Things

There’s nothing like a New England clambake for cooking fresh seafood, including lobster, crab, mussels, clams, and quahogs. Often the seafood is augmented with onions, carrots, corn, sausages, potatoes, and more. The New England Clambake is generally held to mark special occasions all over the shoreline of New England.

A typical New England Clambake recipe begins with gathering seaweed at the shoreline; seaweed is an important adjunct to cooking the food. To keep the seaweed fresh, it is necessary to have a container large enough to hold both the seaweed and a fair amount of sea water. Also important are several round medium-sized stones, or sometimes cannon balls, which are heated in the fire and used to re-radiate heat during the cooking process.

A cover is absolutely necessary to cook by steaming. This allows the heat to be trapped so that steam can completely cook the food. Products that work as covers for steaming food are often canvas tarps or potato sacks soaked in water. These methods allow air to escape so that the food can be more thoroughly cooked.

Steaming is a great way to cook mollusks, because you will not overcook them even though some mollusks need to cook for longer periods of time than others. Steaming also allows food to cook slowly while all the different flavors blend harmoniously. As a rule of thumb, squid needs more time to cook than fish does, and fish need to be cooked longer than shrimp. By using the steaming method, you can put all the foods in at the same time, and they will all get done without overcooking some of them.

Fresh seafood is definitely preferred, in order for the bake to be a worthy bake. The New England Clambake is really not much different than a Cape Cod Clambake. The ingredients are pretty much the same and the Cape Cod Clambake uses the same methods as the New England one.

To many, there is nothing gastronomically better than a clambake and although I tend to argue about culinary preferences, I have no rhetoric to say about a clambake being one of the best eating experiences a seafood lover can have.

There’s nothing like a New England clambake for cooking fresh seafood, including lobster, crab, mussels, clams, and quahogs. Often the seafood is augmented with onions, carrots, corn, sausages, potatoes, and more. The classic recipe for a New England / Cape Cod Clambake starts with gathering seaweed along the shore; it’s a vital ingredient for helping to prepare the food. You will need a container large enough to hold the seaweed and sea water. You will also need several round stones, medium in size, to be heated in the pit. A clambake is one of the greatest eating experiences for a seafood lover or not.

- Matthew Lewis