The New England Clambake O.O.E.E. (Part I)

A Surefire Way To Build Memories and Create a Tradition

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The “New England clambake” is the traditional name for a beach party where lobsters and clams are steamed over hot rocks or a wood-ember heat source along with corn-on-the cob, red potatoes, and other fare. This how-to / Do-It-Yourself (DIY) article is long and involved. But it will help you to cut through the myths and not only demystify the clambake set-up, cooking, serving and eating processes, it will also guide you in creating a spectacular and highly popular OOEE (Outrageous Outdoor Eating Event) which will become a summer tradition for your friends and family! It’s also important to note that if you don’t live near the ocean, you can still pull off a clambake very well with some slight modifications to my core approach.

Let’s get started by looking at the New England clambake, or clam bake, tradition.

The sea coasts of New England are great fun to explore and enjoy during the warm summer months. If you have grown up in any of the states which make up New England, then you might be familiar with shell middens[1] that can still be found in the more sheltered salt water bays and inlets. Middens mark the locations of seasonal summer encampments of the indigenous tribes that frequented this region. Their seashore locations provided ready access to a wealth of sea foods such as lobsters, clams, oysters, crabs, eels and fish. Oysters were a favorite as were both hard shell and soft shell clams.  Shellfish were easy to harvest as were lobsters, crabs and fish. Clam varieties such as the steamer, quahog, razor, surf, littleneck and mussel were all used for tribal feasts on a regular basis. In essence, the New England clambake was an established tradition hundreds of years before the English arrived and we carry it on today. It’s a stand-out OOEE!

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The New England “clambake” was the first type of Outrageous Outdoor Eating Event (OOEE) that I became involved with at a young age in New Jersey, where I grew up. I would typically help my parents and their friends with the set-up and cooking on the beach, along the shores of the many salt water estuaries, or in our own backyard. No matter what location was selected, I was captivated by the collaborative process, the camp cooking atmosphere and know-how, the amount of people that could be fed and, most importantly, the amount of fun that could be generated by this type of OOEE entertainment.

Over the years I have learned that there are four primary clambake cooking approaches. I will cover each of these in this chapter. I will also give you some interesting suggestions that go a bit beyond the basics and share several great ways to enhance your own “bake”.

Here’s the four alternative cooking approaches that you have to choose from:

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