CookEat Recipe
Soft Clams Newburg
Whole soft-shell clam bodies in a sherry, cream and egg-yolk sauce, served hot from a chafing dish or tureen.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Obtain thirty-six good-sized fresh raw shucked whole-belly soft-shell clam bodies (Mya arenaria), with the edible belly, muscle and neck retained. Inspect carefully, remove any remaining shell fragments, hard inedible material and sand, and gently rinse with cold water without breaking the bodies. Keep refrigerated at 4°C or below until cooking.
Step 2
Bring the quart of water to a boil. Plunge the cleaned clam bodies into it for about one minute, then lift them out, drain well and discard the blanching water.
Step 3
Put all the drained clams into a saucepan with the half gill of sherry. Add the teaspoon of salt, the two saltspoons of cayenne pepper and the saltspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. Cook for about one minute over brisk heat.
Step 4
Add the one and a half gills of liquid cream and the gill of cold milk. Bring to a slow boil and cook for about five minutes, continuing as needed until the thickest actual clam bodies reach at least 74°C for fifteen seconds.
Step 5
Beat the three egg yolks with the separate two tablespoons of cream. Mix in a little of the hot sauce, then return all the yolk mixture to the pan with the half ounce of butter. Heat gently for about three minutes without boiling, shuffling the pan by its handle to keep the sauce moving, until the butter has melted and the sauce is smooth and reaches at least 74°C for fifteen seconds.
Step 6
Pour all the finished clams and sauce into a warmed chafing dish or hot soup tureen and serve hot immediately.
Cooked it? Rate it.
Cooked 0 times