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Clam Stew
Take half peck hard-shell clams, wash shells clean, and put in a kettle with about one tea-cup water; let steam until the shells open, when take out of shell, strain juice, and return it with clams to the fire; after they come to a boil, add one pint milk, a piece of butter size of an egg, three crackers rolled fine, pepper, and salt if any is needed.-Mrs. A. W.
A plain New England-style clam stew written in the shorthand of a cook who assumed you already knew what a clam looked like. Two things decide whether it is good: how carefully you strain the liquor, and how briefly the clams sit in the hot milk.
- The hinge: barely cook the clamsThe clams are already cooked the moment their shells open. Returning them to the pot, bringing to a boil, then simmering while the milk heats will make them rubbery. Add the shucked clams at the very end, off the direct heat, and give them a minute or two to warm through.
- Half a peckA peck is 8 dry quarts, so this is 4 quarts of clams in the shell, roughly 5 to 6 lb, or about 40 to 50 littlenecks. That yields something like a pint of shucked meat and a good cup of liquor.
- Hard-shell clamsQuahogs of any size in period usage. Littlenecks and cherrystones are the same species and are the easiest to buy; large chowder quahogs work but should be chopped after steaming or they will be leathery.
- Strain the juice properly"Strain juice" means through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Clam liquor carries sand, and grit ruins the dish more surely than anything else. Leave the last spoonful in the pot rather than pouring in the sediment.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons.
- Three crackers rolled fineThese are common crackers or hard water crackers, considerably larger and drier than a modern saltine. Figure roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of fine crumbs; they are there to thicken lightly, so add them gradually and let the stew stand a few minutes to see how far they swell.
- Salt, and why the recipe hedgesClam liquor is already salty, which is why Mrs. A. W. writes "salt if any is needed." Season only after the milk and liquor are combined.
- The milkWhole milk is what is meant. It will curdle if held at a rolling boil against the acidic clam liquor, so heat it gently and do not let the finished stew boil.
- YieldServes four as a first course, two or three as a supper with bread or more crackers crumbled in.
Clam stew of this kind is close kin to the milk-and-cracker clam chowders of the same era, minus the potatoes and salt pork: shellfish, their own liquor, milk, butter, and crackers to bind. Crackers doing the work of a thickener is the older habit, and it survives in New England's common cracker and in the practice of crumbling pilot bread into chowder at table. Its presence in a Southern compilation like The Dixie Cook Book is a reminder that these late nineteenth-century books were assembled from contributed recipes and freely borrowed from Northern sources; the Gulf and Atlantic coasts had their own abundant hard-shell clams, but the shape of this dish, and the attribution to a set of initials rather than a region, is standard for the genre.