Best 2 Old Fashioned Midwestern Clambake Recipes

OLD FASHIONED MIDWESTERN CLAMBAKE

Steps:

• 1. Scrub clams of all sand using a vegetable brush, even if you are told they are clean from the fish monger they are NOT
• 2. Bag clams in cheese cloth bags and tie, bag corn, sweet potatoes
• 3. Season chicken halfs with salt and pepper and bag in cheesecloth, bag up the backs and necks
• 4. Load all the bags into a very large stockpot ( mine is 28 quart) Add the celery, butter(yes the whole pound), salt and pepper. Place one large sweet potato on top of everything
• 5. Cover and bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to simmer. When a fork is easily inserted into large sweet potato on top it done
• 6. Put bags out on table, discard backs and necks, cut open bags and let everyone at it. Serve with additional melted butter and lots of napkins, and a cup of broth.

ULTIMATE CLAMBAKE

Steps:

• Before you leave the house, put the potatoes and a few large pinches of salt in a very large pot and add water to cover; bring to a boil and cook until they are about half done, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and transfer to a container to take with you to beach.
• Take all the ingredients to the beach, along with a shovel, a tarp, a few garbage bags, a bucket, some cheesecloth, a box of matches, lots of newspaper, firewood and kindling. Find a spot above the high-water mark and dig a 4-by-2-by-2-foot hole. Build a fire in the hole with newspaper, kindling and some wood. (Keep everything else upwind of the fire.) Feed the fire quickly and steadily with more kindling and wood.
• Find about 30 rocks, each 6 by 4 inches or bigger. Start adding the rocks to the fire, a few at a time, slowly over the course of about an hour, while continuing to feed the fire with wood. While the rocks are heating, gather enough seaweed to half-fill 2 or 3 garbage bags.
• When the rocks are white hot (this should take about an hour), stop adding wood but let the fire continue to burn. Meanwhile, make 8 to 12 cheesecloth packages, each containing a few of the clams, mussels and potatoes. Peel back the husks of the corn but don't remove them; remove as much of the silk as you can, then fold the husks back into place.
• Remove any remaining wood from the fire with a shovel; a bed of coals topped by a layer of white-hot rocks should remain. Immediately dump the seaweed over the rocks, creating a layer at least 2 to 3 inches thick; no rocks should remain exposed or you will burn the food (and maybe the tarp). Sprinkle the seaweed with about a gallon of seawater. Put the cheesecloth packages, corn and lobsters in a single layer on top of the seaweed. Cover the food in an additional layer of seaweed and cover the entire pit with a tarp, weighing the edges of the tarp down with rocks.
• Cook undisturbed for 30 to 40 minutes. Put the butter in a heatproof saucepan. When the seafood is ready, peel back the tarp and put the pan of butter on the fire until it melts. Remove the tarp entirely, transfer the food to serving platters and serve everything with the melted butter, lemon wedges and more salt.