Before Bar Harbor was known as Bar Harbor, the Wabanaki tribe gathered clams, and other shellfish in this part of Mount Desert Island and referred to the area as Ah-bays’auk (“clambake place”), leaving large piles of shells as evidence of the practice.
Origin of clambake1An Americanism dating back to 1825–35;
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Either way, a clambake is defined by the beach, steam, and effort. It involves the same pit oven process of digging and lining a pit with rocks, but it skips one step. Instead of flooding the pit, one lights a hardwood fire on top of the rocks, and then lets it burn out. Once the fire burns out, one scrapes out the ashes, embers, and leftover wood and covers the hot rocks with a generous layer of wet seaweed. The fixings for the clambake are then layered on top, wrapped in cheesecloth, covered with more seaweed, and, finally, blanketed with seawater-soaked burlap sacks to keep in the steam that eventually cooks everything. In the end, the clams should be open, the potatoes and corn tender. Thanks to the seawater and seaweed, the food has a smoky, briny flavor.
The contemporary clambake, though, comes from the Wampanoag Indians, who lived around what is now known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They taught settlers how to steam catch on the coastline in the 1700s. But while the Wampanoags traditionally have appanaugs, or clambakes, as part of formal ceremonies, New Englanders hold them more as social gatherings.
Pit-oven cooking has been a been tried-and-true culinary technique for centuries―in fact, it used to be the way to cook large quantities of food. For thousands of years, people dug massive holes in the sand and lined the holes with round rocks that kept them relatively waterproof. They then filled the pits with water, heated rocks in a nearby fire, and dropped the rocks inside the watery pit, which heated the water to a boil. Pit ovens were covered with a makeshift lid of animal skins and leaves. The food was then laid on top, and cooked through from the rising steam.
The term clambake is shorthand, too, for cooking a hodgepodge of assorted delicacies including lobsters, steamer clams, crabs, mussels and quahogs, in addition to sides like corn and potatoes. An offshoot of the clambake, a Portuguese New England clam boil, involves using stovetop pots and the addition of linguiça (a spicy sausage) to the mix.
New England HUGE CLAMBAKE!! 298 Lobsters, Clams, Corn on Cabbage Island!!
FAQ
What is the origin of the clambake?
What does the slang term clam bake mean?
What is an American clambake?
What is the difference between a clam bake and a seafood boil?
What is a New England clambake?
The clambake or clam bake, also known as the New England clambake, is a traditional method of cooking seafood, such as lobster, mussels, crabs, scallops, soft-shell clams, and quahogs. The food is traditionally cooked by steaming the ingredients over layers of seaweed in a pit oven.
What is a clambake?
While today’s clambakes tend to be cooked away from the beach in pots over propane, the traditional menu components have endured. “Our standard clambake is lobster, steamers, corn on the cob, a garden salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert,” says Rick Delisle, co-owner of Vinwood Caterers in Ipswich.
Where did Clambake come from?
The clambake “exploded” in popularity after the American Civil War. Rhode Island businessmen operated many clambake pavilions, and the first published clambake recipe credited that state as the origin. The practice spread throughout New England and on to other parts of the country.
What did clambakes eat?
The seaweed lent moisture and effectively steamed the food until tender. Some clambakes were small family affairs serving just chowder, clams, corn and watermelon, while others were community-wide extravaganzas replete with clams, fish, lobster, sausages, potatoes, corn, salads, sandwiches, pies, and cakes.