Recipe(tried): Ed's clam recipe

Hi Jackie - Ed has been making these clams for over 50 years every summer here on Cape Cod. His kids grew up eating them as well as slurping down the raw ones - even as little kids they loved them.

He has a special clam knife that he's had those 50 years, and I told someone yesterday that if it came to a choice between me and the clam knife, I'd be gone!! People have given him clam knives over the years, but they end up in the drawer once he tries them and they don't work like the old one. Opening clams is a real art and takes lots of practice - however, if you put them in the freezer for about 5 minutes or a bit longer, they relax and it's easier to get that knife in between the shells. Or some people put them in the microwave for a minute and it will open up that muscle. He's been doing it so long that he just whips them open so quickly!

Here's his big complicated recipe!:

Open the clams, reserve the juice and place the clams in their juice on one half the shell. Place them on an old cookie sheet(ours for the grill is pretty rusty, so I put foil on it) Top with a small (1/2 inch big) piece of bacon, and put a spritz of the spray butter over the top of that.

Preheat the grill on high, put the clams in, lower the lid and cook for about 8 minutes or so. (I actually like them better when I parcook the little bacon pieces in the microwave and then when you put them on top the clams, you don't have to cook the clams as long as when the bacon is raw - by the time the raw bacon is cooked enough, sometimes the smaller clams are too cooked and can be a bit chewy)

That's it - complicated, huh? Everyone just LOVES those things, he can't make enough of them.

Try it sometime -

Love, June