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Clam Bouillon
Clam bouillon made according to the following recipe is excellent. Wash thoroughly six clams in their shells, then put them in a sauce pan with a pint of boiling water, and bring to a boiling point. When the shells are open, remove the clams and hold each one separately over the saucepan and pierce well with a fork, letting the juice escape. Cover and cook again for twenty-one minutes longer, then strain through two thicknesses of cheese cloth. Add a cup of rich cream and a tablespoonful of soft butter, and serve very hot. A spoonful of whipped cream may be added to each cup of bouillon.
A clear clam broth enriched with cream, served in cups rather than bowls. The whole thing hangs on the strain and on how the cream goes in.
- Which clamsSix clams to a pint of water suggests large hard-shell clams, quahogs or chowder clams, rather than small ones; with littlenecks or Manila clams you would need considerably more for comparable flavor.
- Scrub and purgeWash means scrub the shells with a stiff brush. Hard clams often carry sand inside as well; an hour in cold salted water before cooking cuts down on grit.
- The twenty-one minutesThat is a long simmer for a broth already extracted from the shells. The clam meat is out of the pot by then, so nothing is being toughened, and the pot is covered, so little liquid is lost. A shorter simmer of fifteen to twenty minutes will give much the same result.
- Don't discard the clamsThe recipe removes the meat and never returns to it. Chop it for chowder, fritters, or clam hash; the flavor left in it after a brief steam is considerable.
- StrainingTwo thicknesses of cheesecloth is the minimum. Wet the cloth first so it doesn't drink the broth, and leave the last spoonful of liquid in the pan — that is where the sand settles.
- Adding the creamClam liquor is salty, and cold cream dropped into a boiling broth can curdle. Warm the cream separately, take the broth off a hard boil, then combine. A cup of cream to a pint of broth gives a pale, rich bouillon; half that is closer to modern taste.
- SeasoningNo salt is called for, and none should be needed — taste after the cream goes in, since dilution can flatten it. A grind of white pepper or a scrape of nutmeg is period-appropriate.
- YieldAbout a pint and a half after straining and enriching, which is three or four bouillon cups. Serve in warmed cups; it cools fast and the cream dulls as it does.
Bouillon in a book of this era means a clear, sippable broth taken from a two-handled cup, often as a first course at a formal dinner or handed round at receptions and to invalids, alongside beef and chicken versions. Clam bouillon belonged to a period when clam broth was treated as something close to a tonic: clam juice was sold bottled and recommended for weak stomachs and convalescents well into the twentieth century. The whipped cream floated on top echoes the way consommes and bisques were dressed in restaurant service of the period.