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Nothing like a nice batch of "steamers"
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Joined: 06 February 2010
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    Posted: 15 July 2012 at 04:03
The clam diggers are all busy here in New England this summer, and thankfully the competition has driven the price down to an affordable level. 

I picked up a few pounds for the wife and I and prepared them in the traditional New England manner.

The clams were quite muddy, so I soaked them twice in lukewarm water with a bit of vinegar in it...this seems to help them to spit out all the mud and sand.


Then loaded up the bottom of the steamer with some beer and water


Steamers go in first


Followed closely by the onions, potatoes, choricho and corn


If you really want to get fancy..toss a couple lobsters on top of it all.


That is topped off with a very generous shake of Old Bay seasoning, brought to a boil and steamed until the taters are done.


Dump it in a big old bowl...portion it out and chow down.
These were the best steamers I've had in years...very sweet . I wish you all could have tasted them.
Go ahead...play with your food!
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Hoser,
 
Gorgeous clams ... and corn ...
 
I am a big shellfish fan ... I should live on coast all year ...
 
Have lovely Sunday,
Ciao. Margi.
Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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Looks awesome, Dave! Wish I could have been there for such great New England Eats!
 
Thanks for sharing!
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The clams were quite muddy, so I soaked them twice in lukewarm water with a bit of vinegar in it...this seems to help them to spit out all the mud and sand.

Wow, that just sounds very wrong to me.  Putting clams in warm, acidic water is going to severely stress them, and I would worry about them dying over the time that it takes for them to purge grit.  Some people swear by the technique of using cornmeal so that the clams will suck it in and replace the grit, but I get good results simply by putting the clams into a colander that is suspended in cool, clean salt water (i.e., water in which they are comfortable) for a few hours.  Any grit that they expel in that time then falls through the colander and collects on the bottom of the pot/bucket instead of being re-ingested by the clams.

You guys have such cute little clams on the East Coast! Tongue 
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Looks great!

One question though... What is that pot thingie??? 
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Originally posted by AK1 AK1 wrote:

Looks great!

One question though... What is that pot thingie??? 

It's just a spigot on the pot so you can draw off the broth from the clams and dip them in it before you dip them in the butter. Quite common here in New England.
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Originally posted by Daikon Daikon wrote:

The clams were quite muddy, so I soaked them twice in lukewarm water with a bit of vinegar in it...this seems to help them to spit out all the mud and sand.

Wow, that just sounds very wrong to me.  Putting clams in warm, acidic water is going to severely stress them, and I would worry about them dying over the time that it takes for them to purge grit.  Some people swear by the technique of using cornmeal so that the clams will suck it in and replace the grit, but I get good results simply by putting the clams into a colander that is suspended in cool, clean salt water (i.e., water in which they are comfortable) for a few hours.  Any grit that they expel in that time then falls through the colander and collects on the bottom of the pot/bucket instead of being re-ingested by the clams.

You guys have such cute little clams on the East Coast! Tongue 
Perhaps my definition of lukewarm differs with yours....not warm, but not cold either..I would estimate the water temp at 75-80 degrees when I used it, which is the water temp in the bay right now where the clams were dug. I also neglected to mention I use quite a bit of ground black pepper rather than cornmeal...just seems to work a lot better for me.
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I would estimate the water temp at 75-80 degrees when I used it, which is the water temp in the bay right now where the clams were dug.

That sounds very high for water temperatures.  That is much higher than the temperature of Pacific clamming beds.  I'm just far more used to purging clams in water colder than humans feel comfortable swimming in, then removing them from the water and storing them in a cooler drawer with damp towels for at most a few hours during service.

But then, you East Coasties have something of a reputation for doing strange things to your seafood. Evil Smile
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But then, you East Coasties have something of a reputation for doing strange things to your seafood. Evil Smile
 
Right! Like the crab and American cheese omelet I was once served. Oh, wait, that was in Oregon. Then there was the rubberized by grilling gooey duck. Oh, no. That was California. But there was that so-called clam-chowder, made with white wine and loaded down with all sorts of garden truck, none of which was potatoes. Whoops! California again.
 
What is it they say about kettles and pots?
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Ah, the joys of living in Montana - where we're just happy to find frozen, pre-cooked shrimp or imitation crab on sale!
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Originally posted by HistoricFoodie HistoricFoodie wrote:

But then, you East Coasties have something of a reputation for doing strange things to your seafood. Evil Smile
 
Right! Like the crab and American cheese omelet I was once served. Oh, wait, that was in Oregon. Then there was the rubberized by grilling gooey duck. Oh, no. That was California. But there was that so-called clam-chowder, made with white wine and loaded down with all sorts of garden truck, none of which was potatoes. Whoops! California again.
 
What is it they say about kettles and pots?

 
LOL Fair enough, not everyone out here has absorbed the Japanese attitude toward seafood -- but a lot have.
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dave, is this dish a "traditional" new england thing?
 
the reason i ask is because we were watching a cooking show just now, and a gal from there just made essentially the same thing, portuguese sausage and all. the only fundamental difference i saw was that hers was sauted in wine rather than steamed in beer. good-looking stuff!
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Ron, dishes like that, generically called "boils", are found all over the coastal area. Generally the same veggies appear---corn, taters, onions---along with a sausage of some sort. What changes is the seafood, which ranges from clams to crayfish.
 
Personally I feel all that stuff unnecessary with steamers, which are small, naturally sweet tasting clams. Just the pot likker and some melted butter does me just fine. Prepared that way, steamers are a traditional starter for a lobster dinner throughout New England. But I can skip the lobster and just pig out on the clams.
 
But I most certainly would not turn my nose up at a full scale boil such as Dave describes.
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Ever been to a fish boil in Door County, Wisconsin?  Now there's a full scale boil -- particularly when they get to the last phase of making the pot boil over.  Minimal ingredients, but maximum presentation during the cooking.  And plenty of Wisconsin butter.
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dang, that was a pretty dramatic finale. 
 
i've heard of the great lakes fish boils (as i recall, lake trout is used?) but have never attended one or tried one on my own.
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Usually whitefish.  Sometimes trout or salmon.
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Originally posted by TasunkaWitko TasunkaWitko wrote:

dave, is this dish a "traditional" new england thing?
 
the reason i ask is because we were watching a cooking show just now, and a gal from there just made essentially the same thing, portuguese sausage and all. the only fundamental difference i saw was that hers was sauted in wine rather than steamed in beer. good-looking stuff!

It is traditional Ron, but as some have suggested I would not say strictly to New England. The basic ingredients of potatoes onions and sausage seem to prevail about everywhere, but the guest of honor can vary from fish (which I often include) to lobster to crab to mudbugs to whatever happens to be seasonal in your part of the country. The constants seem to be starch, sausage, onion and whatever seafood protein you have.
Go ahead...play with your food!
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What's a mudbug?
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Originally posted by Daikon Daikon wrote:

What's a mudbug?

i Think it looks like that  it is big in the south .
Ahron
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Oh, crayfish.  Never heard them called mudbugs before.
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