About clams

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Although any edible clam can be used in clam chowder, in New England it comes down to either the soft-shelled, or steamer, clam or the quahog. In most clam chowder recipes, I substitue quahogs for steamers if the recipe calls for steamers. I do this for two reasons: First, steamers are a lot more expensive, due to their more delicate flavor and gentler texture. But the best reason of all is because you can do so many other things with steamers (Steamed clams, of course, but also battered and fried, added to fritters, etc.) Quahogs are tougher - it has been said of quahogs that for them "it's either the chowder pot or the rubber band factory." One other point: quahogs are a lot less gritty on the inside, being tight closers.

Steamers tend to hold a lot of sand.

Now for quahogs: It's both the name of the kind of clam, and the name of the largest variety of that kind. If your local market has a really good seafood department, you've seen various sizes of quahogs sorted under these names (starting with the smallest): Littlenecks, cherrystones, mediums (sometimes - I find most mediums are being called cherrystones now) and quahogs (also called "chowder clams" or "stuffing clams"). Littlenecks and cherrystones are usually served raw; mediums are usually steamed open and served on the half shell; and quahogs are used in chowders and in stuffed clams. Not only are quahogs big, so they yield a lot of meat for a chowder, but as I've mentioned, they are tight and don't pick up a lot of sand. They need a knife to open raw and even then it's difficult. Although I've seen suggestions to pour boiling water over them to get them to yawn a little, you'll need a knife even then. I prefer to just steam them open. Like any other clam, they'll open up wide when steamed. This also gives you the advantage of knowing before you use them whether they're good or not. A bad clam won't open in the steamer.

Posted to COOKING by Dave Sacerdote, 12/95 Submitted By DAVE SACERDOTE On 12-06-95

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