Hard Clam - Culinary Use

Culinary Use

In coastal areas of New England, New York, and New Jersey, restaurants known as raw bars or clam bars specialize in serving littlenecks and topnecks raw on an opened half-shell, usually with a cocktail sauce with horseradish, and often with lemon. Sometimes, littlenecks are steamed and dipped in butter, though not as commonly as their soft-shelled clam cousin, the "steamer." Littlenecks are often found in-the-shell in sauces, soups, stews, clams casino or substituted for European varieties such as the cockle in southern European seafood dishes. The largest clams, quahogs or chowders and cherrystones, which have the toughest meat, are used in such dishes as clam chowder, clam cakes and stuffed clams, or are minced and mixed into dishes that use the smaller, more tender clams.