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Soft Clams, Grant
Discard all sandy parts of thirty-six large, very fresh, soft clams, keeping nothing but the perfect bodies. Plunge in boiling water for one minute, drain and keep on a plate. Heat one and a half tablespoons melted butter in a saucepan, adding three sound, very finely chopped shallots, half a finely chopped green pepper, two white, crisp branches celery also finely chopped, and brown to a nice light-brown colour, occasionally stirring meanwhile; add two tablespoons flour, stirring while heating for one minute. Pour in one gill cream, one gill milk, two tablespoons sherry, a teaspoon anchovy essence, a tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, half a teaspoon salt, a saltspoon cayenne pepper and a saltspoon grated nutmeg. Mix well until it comes to a boil, then add the clams; carefully mix without breaking them. Pour into a baking dish, arrange six thin slices broiled bacon on top, sprinkle two tablespoons Parmesan cheese over, divide half ounce good butter in small bits on top, set in oven to bake for ten minutes, or until a nice golden colour, remove and serve.
A chafing-dish-era clam gratin that assumes you know how to clean a soft-shell clam. The measurements are pre-metric American restaurant shorthand, and the oven temperature is left entirely to your judgment.
- The clamsSoft clams are steamers (Mya arenaria), not littlenecks. "Discard all sandy parts... keeping nothing but the perfect bodies" means pulling off the black sheath over the siphon and removing the dark stomach mass; what remains is the body and the tender part of the neck. Thirty-six large clams yields roughly a pound of cleaned meat.
- The one-minute plungeThe blanch firms the meat and rinses off residual grit. Do not extend it. The clams get another ten minutes in the oven, and soft clams turn to rubber bands with any real cooking time.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so this is 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup milk. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon, which makes the cayenne and nutmeg quantities assertive but not extreme.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given; the book leaves it to the cook's judgment. For a ten-minute bake that browns the cheese, a hot oven in the region of 425F will do; the sauce is already cooked, so the oven is only there to gratinate.
- Anchovy essenceThe bottled Victorian product was a thin, salty anchovy extract. A scant teaspoon of anchovy paste, or two mashed oil-packed fillets, stands in. Taste before adding the half teaspoon of salt, since the anchovy, Worcestershire, Parmesan and bacon are all salty.
- "Melted butter" and the rouxOne and a half tablespoons of butter to two tablespoons of flour is a lean roux for a cup of liquid; browning the vegetables in it first is what gives the dish its colour. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the clams rather than pool around them.
- The baconBroil it separately until it is cooked but not brittle, then lay it on. Raw bacon will not render in a ten-minute bake and will sit greasy on top.
- YieldServes four as a main course with toast, or six as a first course. It is best baked in a shallow dish so the gratin surface is wide.
The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and it follows the restaurant habit of attaching a proper name to a garnish or preparation. Dishes labelled "Grant" in American hotel cookery of this period are generally taken as compliments to Ulysses S. Grant, though the connection is honorific rather than documented, and by 1906 such names had hardened into menu vocabulary detached from any particular person. What is more revealing is the ingredient list: sherry, anchovy essence, Worcestershire, cayenne and nutmeg over shellfish is the signature of the late-nineteenth-century American chafing dish, a highly seasoned Anglo-French idiom applied here to the humble soft clam, which was cheap, abundant along the Atlantic coast, and more often eaten fried or steamed by the bucket than dressed up under Parmesan.