The encyclopædia of practical cookery

the hard parts of the Clams moderately fine, put them into a saucepan with the water in which they were washed, 1 pint of tinned or sliced tomatoes, an onion peeled and sliced, a small red pepper, and 2 teaspoonfuls of salt, and cook very slowly for one hour ; then strain through a fine colander. After the soup has been strained, put it again over the fire, add to it pint of new milk, 1 table-spoonful of butter, 4 table-spoonfuls of finely-powdered cracker dust, and the soft portions of the Clams, and stir it constantly until it boils. Let it boil for a minute, add more salt and pepper if necessary, and serve very hot. Steamed Clams. — Take some Clams and scrub their shells well in water ; then place them in a saucepan without any water, put them on the fire, and cook until the shells open. Take out the Clams with a skimmer, pour the liquor into a jar, and let it settle. It will be useless to strain the liquor through the finest strainer, but a piece of linen may be used ; or if allowed to settle, and care be taken not to move the sediment, the water can be poured off. Take out the Clams from their shells, pulling off the thin skin round the edge, and cutting off the whole of the black end with a pair of scissors. Dip each Clam in a little of the liquor, and if at all tough cut that part through. When the water has settled, pour it into a saucepan, add the Clams, and make it hot, but do not boil it. Take out the Clams, and serve with brown bread-and-butter, toasted crackers, or on pieces of buttered toast. Stewed Clams. — Remove thirty-six small Clams from their shells, put them into a stewpan with 2oz. of fresh butter, 1 pinch of chives, and 1 pinch of finely-chopped chervil ; add ^ breakfast-cupful of water— so that they will not be too salt — also i pinch of pepper and 2 table-spoonfuls of sifted breadcrumbs, and boil for two minutes. Turn the whole out on to a dish, and serve with the juice of half a lemon squeezed over. Stewed Soft Clams. — (1) Wash 3½ dozen of fresh soft Clams so that no sand adheres to them after they are opened, lay them carefully in the palm of the left hand, and with the fingers of the right remove the body carefully, but nothing else, being very careful not to break it, and . throwing away all the other parts. When all are prepared, place them in a stewpan, with loz. of butter, -J- pinch of white pepper, 1 wineglassful of Madeira wine, and two finely-hashed medium-sized truffles ; place the cover on the pan, and cook gently for eight minutes. Put the yolks of three eggs into a bowl, add 1 pint of sweet cream, and beat well for three minutes ; pour this over the Clams, and toss the saucepan for two or three minutes very gently, to thoroughly incorporate the Clams with the cream, but without letting the liquor boil again, or the Clams will break. Neither spoon nor fork should ever be used in mixing them. Pour the whole into a hot dish, and send to the table at once.