Aspiring Spirit

The New England clambake is a great method of cooking foods, fresh seafood such as lobster, mussels, crabs, clams, and quahogs. The seafood is often supplemented by sausages, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn-on-the-cob, etc. A New England Clambake is usually held on festive occasions along the coast of New England.

If you wish to prepare a New England Clambake, start by locating kelp and other natural sea plants. When placed appropriately, seaweed acts as a conduit for heating. If you will not be using the things you have collected immediately, have a large cooler on hand to store what you have gathered with enough salt water. If you have not done this before, you will also need to collect rocks of appropriate shape and size. Those can be taken with you and reused in the future.

Lastly, like most other methods of cooking by steaming, a cover is necessary to allow the trapped heat and steam to thoroughly cook the food. Canvas tarps or potato sacks soaked in sea water are often used for this purpose, they allow air to escape while also maintain much of it so it may cook the food thoroughly.

Steaming lets all the flavors from the ingredients emerge and blend slowly so that a harmony of flavors it’s achieved. All while not over cooking the ingredients, something very important when cooking mollusks since they tend to vary on cooking times. Usually fish takes much less time to cook than squid, and shrimp takes less time than fish, by using the steaming method, one is allowed to cook all kinds of ingredients with much less opportunity to overcook others.

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.

Many believe that there is nothing tastier than a clambake and whilst I may argue about people’s tastes, I cannot disagree with a clambake being amongst the greatest dishes a seafood lover will ever experience.

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