Quahogs - Clams

NJPOLKER

Any of you guys/gals ever harvest Quahogs/Clams? When I moved to Charlestown, RI my beautiful girlfriend took me quahoging and I love it. It didn't take me long to catch on and develop a good technique. I use a potato rake not one of those rakes with a basket. Since I am a seasoned pro now I can say this, the folks with the basket rakes are beginners
For me standing in the Charlestown Pond harvesting quahogs and eating some of the small ones right then is really hard to beat. I was informed that eating them while harvesting is illegal but I can't help myself The quahogs I eat are part of my daily harvest and DEM can't tell how many I harvested since they are marinating in beer in my stomach. I always am prepared with my clam knife and beer, no cocktail sauce needed for me. She will make stuffies or clams casino with the large quahogs and sometimes clam sauce.
From the pond to the pot or stomach can't be beat and I consider myself a real lucky guy. If you get a chance to try it got for it unless your not really a clam lover. Even if you won't eat them its a lot of fun. The season is about over for me since its getting kind of cold and won't wear waders.
We don't bother with steamers/piss clams since I buy them for $2.99 to $3.99/LB which are my personal favorite seafood.

newbie308

Stop! You're makin me hungry! Dangit! Besides, those poor little buggers can't be as happy as a clam now that they are swimming in beer!

I like to toss them on the grill while cooking a steak or whatever and eat them as they open up as an appetizer!

NJPOLKER

I hear ya

Why cook them at all?

Have you ever raked them?

mrbiron

Nothing beats a good stuffy......except maybe 2 stuffies!!

George Grand

Quahog sounds like it would be the name of a town on Long Island.

nooshinjohn

Say hi to the guys down at the Drunken Clam for me. I miss Peter and the guys.

Nightfall

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Say hi to the guys down at the Drunken Clam for me. I miss Peter and the guys.

Four other guys didn't catch this? Seriously?

westmassguy

Nightfall wrote: »

Four other guys didn't catch this? Seriously?

I like pancakes, I like pancakes, they make me a happy Peter.
I am happy, I am happy La La La La La.

mhardy6647

George Grand wrote: »

Quahog sounds like it would be the name of a town on Long Island.

... or the Cape...

NJPOLKER

The weather is turning for the better and I have my potato rakes ready for another year of quahogs/clamming.

Anne Marie was so very thoughtful on here way back from the cape. She stopped and bought me 12lbs of steamers also know as soft shelled clam or piss clams for you country bumpkins. At $2.99/lb you can't beat that!!
Budweiser and steamers makes Drew a happy guy.

Have any of you guys/gals ever harvested fresh seafood? Nothing is better than picking oysters off the rocks and eating them immediately. With the proper oyster knife and technique you can have the finest appetizer money can't buy. No cocktail sauce needed.

pitdogg2

NJPOLKER wrote: »

Have any of you guys/gals ever harvested fresh seafood? Nothing is better than picking oysters off the rocks and eating them immediately. With the proper oyster knife and technique you can have the finest appetizer money can't buy. No cocktail sauce needed.

Man sounds like my kind of time love me some oysters....

oldmodman

Can't say I am a fan of clams.

Unless you consider abalone a clam (it's not a bivalve.)

My dad and a bunch of his aerospace buddies would head over to Catalina Island on a 46 foot boat one of them had. And we would anchor and row ashore in one of the unoccupied coves, set up camp and start diving for abalones. The rocks and bottom were covered with them back in the 50s & early 60s. The guys taught me how to dive and slide a tire iron under one and pull it off the rock. When they were brought to shore they would be cleaned, pounded, breaded and beered then cooked over a driftwood fire.

Best seafood of any type I have ever had. But those days are gone. They were fished into extinction in Southern California and are now endangered. We all made one last trip to see what was left in 1973 and the rocks were stripped bare. Nothing left but kelp and starfish. The industrial fisheries had cleaned them out down to the very last animal.

tonyb

Nay nay my friend, Abalone are still on the menu in most higher end places on the California coast. You can still harvest them but under strict conditions. Will agree though, some of the best seafood you'll ever eat in Abalone.

Btw- who puts cocktail sauce on a fresh raw Oyster ? Nobody, that's who. Tabasco or some Cabernet sauce, maybe some lemon, but never cocktail sauce...yuk.

pitdogg2

tonyb wrote: »

Btw- who puts cocktail sauce on a fresh raw Oyster ? Nobody, that's who..

Well I do so still wanna talk smack:loneranger:

hochpt21

I'm far from educated on this topic...all I've ever had here in the midwest (far from the sea) are some blue points on the half shell.

Squeeze of lemon, touch of cocktail, pinch of raw horseradish sauce........heaven.

Tony, never thought of a red-wine sauce. Have to try it some time.

pitdogg2

hochpt21 wrote: »

Squeeze of lemon, touch of cocktail, pinch of raw horseradish sauce........heaven.

Exactly....

NJPOLKER

Unfortunately we do not have scallops in the salt ponds here in Rhode Island any longer. It's sad that the scallop population and sea grass was ruined many years ago from over harvesting by commercial fishing. At least that's what I was told.

Anne Marie remembers when she and her grandfather used to spend the day on the water eating raw scallops and loving life. I never ate raw scallops till I moved to RI and I gotta say they are really really good. If you ever have a chance to eat fresh raw scallops do not hesitate, eating them.

Abalone has gotta be damn good too! Hopefully I'll have a chance to eat some one day soon.

I have tried mountain oysters though.

NJPOLKER

hochpt21 wrote: »

I'm far from educated on this topic...all I've ever had here in the midwest (far from the sea) are some blue points on the half shell.

Squeeze of lemon, touch of cocktail, pinch of raw horseradish sauce........heaven.

Tony, never thought of a red-wine sauce. Have to try it some time.

NEVER EVER USE LEMON on fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless it's bad fish and then you really don't want to eat it anyway!!

I have never understood why people ruin fish with lemon. It makes no sense. Why kill the taste of the fish? Again. if it's bad fish and for some reason you have to eat it by all means drench it in lemon.

I like lemon by the way LOL If it tastes like fish it's a dish I guess!! If it taste like lemon leave it alone.

trav0810

I use lemon on or in almost every seafood dish I eat. I have never thought that it covers up the tste of anything, just adds the little bit of acidity that seafood lacks.

hochpt21

NJPOLKER wrote: »

NEVER EVER USE LEMON on fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless it's bad fish and then you really don't want to eat it anyway!!

I have never understood why people ruin fish with lemon. It makes no sense. Why kill the taste of the fish? Again. if it's bad fish and for some reason you have to eat it by all means drench it in lemon.

I like lemon by the way LOL If it tastes like fish it's a dish I guess!! If it taste like lemon leave it alone.

Hey, if I lived by some of you ****'s out on the coasts, and had fresh seafood all over the place...I'm sure the taste would blow me away.

But here in Wisconsin...you pretty much get baked or fried cod or walleye...and you're gonna want to put lemon on that

pitdogg2

Lemon can be used to cook seafood. The acids in it also can kill some microbe's. No matter how fresh no matter how clean some will have the nasties. Raw oysters are notorious for some pretty bad microbes but we love them anyway....

NJPOLKER

http://www.rhodyoysters.com/

Perry took Anne Marie and I on a tour of his oyster farm on Potters Pond. He showed us how they grow and harvest the oysters they serve in his restaurant and sell to other restaurant's. We had fried oysters for lunch of course.

Oysters........... hhmmmmmmmmmmmm a drop of gin and maybe a ultra thin slice of cucumber on a fresh raw oyster oh my god!!!

As I remember it takes about three years to grow a legal oyster. Oysters can live out of water for many hours without harm. They attach themselves to rocks and when its low tide they can spend many hours exposed.

When we go to the Matunuck Oyster Bar I know what I am in for, great food, great atmosphere and the bill Click on the main menu and you'll see what I am talking about. An easy hundred for the two of us but I'd rather pay a hundred and have a wonderful time than spend half that on crappy food and service.

NJPOLKER

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Lemon can be used to cook seafood. The acids in it also can kill some microbe's. No matter how fresh no matter how clean some will have the nasties. Raw oysters are notorious for some pretty bad microbes but we love them anyway....

Question for you

Do you drink? LMAO The last thing I worry about is microb**** I eat raw beef before it goes on the grill and have never had a problem. I eat that thing to without a problem and will take my chances.

NO LEMON

scubalab

Oh, this thread has me watering at the mouth! Have to agree - LOVE the steamers. Used to go to my uncles at the Jersey shore once a summer for the annual 'pigathon' - steamers topped the menu.

Most recently, we've been vacationing quite frequently on Grand Bahama Island. My brother and I really got into free-diving for spiny lobsters(

), and spearing the occasional grunt. When we're fortunate enough to reel in a grouper... man, it doesn't get much better than that. There used to be a local who built a 'shack'(

) on the beach and cooked the lobster or grouper fresh for you. I don't know if it was the atmosphere, but there truly isn't anything that tastes better than the fresh grouper or lobster on a wood fire grill right on the beach, feet away from where they were harvested!

hochpt21

NJPOLKER wrote: »

Oysters........... hhmmmmmmmmmmmm a drop of gin and maybe a ultra thin slice of cucumber on a fresh raw oyster oh my god!!!

I bet a drop of Hendrix would taste great. Never thought of that!

NJPOLKER

hochpt21 wrote: »

Hey, if I lived by some of you ****'s out on the coasts, and had fresh seafood all over the place...I'm sure the taste would blow me away.

But here in Wisconsin...you pretty much get baked or fried cod or walleye...and you're gonna want to put lemon on that

I used to live in Wisconsin, Thiensville maybe 20 miles north of Milwaukee
In my opinion good food was difficult to come by unless I headed south to Chicago.

Yeah, I tried the "poor man's lobster" a few times and it was exactly what it was LMAO boiled pike/muskie dipped in butter. OMG it was great in a way but as good food goes it sucked big time. Yeah fish boils too!
Wisconsin is the greatest place I have ever been ever thought the food sucks. I always wondered why the women are so fat and the food is so bad.

tonyb

That's because fresh water fish isn't as good as salt water fish, just a plain fact. Not that fresh water fish is terrible by any means.

Clams,Oysters... the Cabernet sauce was new to me until a stop at a place called GO FISH in Napa. It was Cabernet wine, dash of red wine vinegar and some shallots. Outstanding to say the least, the wife and I ate 4 dozen oysters. Dash of horseradish is also excellent. But cocktail sauce is akin to putting ketchup on a Hotdog. Cocktail sauce does nothing imho to enhance what your eating, or let you taste what your eating. It's an easy way to hide the flavor of crappy seafood.

Theirs a difference in fresh seafood, or any food for that matter, over what we are accustomed to from our local grocery stores. Once you taste that difference, you don't want to hide it. Give it some flare....yes, but not completely take away the flavor of the food.

Btw-if you have a bottle of cocktail sauce in the fridge right now, go look at the #1 ingredient....High fructose corn syrup. Who wants to put that on a piece of fresh anything ?

Baked clams ? Now that's another story, love me some baked clams and hot Italian crusty bread for dipping in the sauce.

NJPOLKER

Hey Tony That's great stuff you posted.

Last summer Anne Marie's son filled a large cooler, maybe a 10 gallon one, full of mussels. I am not the great fan of mussels however we went to work on them, first off cleaning them which is a dirty deed. We got a system set up and between the four of us we cleaned them all real well and sorted them out. For whatever the reason we had a millions of mussels in the pond and large ones too!!
Anne Marie and I cooked them a few different ways but my favorite was a simple garlic and butter sauce simmered on the grill. We used some in a red sauce which is always nice to freeze for a later date. I cooler that size means we had a lot of mussels but didn't waste one!!
From the pond to the pot, you can't beat that. Absolutely the best.

tonyb

Can't go wrong with garlic and butter on most anything...gotta love it man. What kind of pond you talkin ? Back yard pond or a nature wildlife one ? Never heard of anyone raising mussels in a backyard pond, though the thought is interesting.

Personally, I love all the shell fish. Clams in pasta...one of my favs. Raw-baked-mixed in with something else, the flavors are up my alley. Oysters are best raw though. Steamed mussels in a garlic/butter sauce with a pinch of red pepper for a little zing...add some crusty bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese and you can eat that all day long....well I can anyway.

NJPOLKER

Charlestown Pond some call in Ninigret Pond with-in walking distance from my home. Used to be able to see the pond from front of our home till the trees grew too tall.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAK1sbpaHGxBUW1YWE8hzC_n6651Y_3zF29UNvj7DjwoQugw35bidtuoKL:www.fws.gov/northeast/le/charlestown/images/random/6.jpg

The Charlestown Breachway which runs into the pond.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ_Fts99j5EL4G1PdS1MsSuq7keOtC4OMCDsGuvnj_R5Hs6tq8sb5SDuL-o:newenglandboating.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Charlestown_Breachway.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOlDBvF11rQ7GgLeBWhk_NJSwLoFIUxxld2vBhemoaBrvktfpP2w:newenglandboating.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/charlestownChart1.jpg