Clambake Class

ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

ChefSteps

Dutch oven

River rock

Kombu

Wood chips

Lemons

Clams

Mussels

Chorizo

Dungeness crab

Maitake mushrooms

Spring onion(s)

Garlic chives

Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

Chorizo and Eggs

Sea beans

Geoduck

Algae, fresh

You can either buy or collect your own river rocks—we collected ours along the Elliott Bay shore. Larger rocks are better because they’ll hold on to heat more effectively, and they’re a lot easier to work with than tons of smaller rocks. Not too big, though, or you won’t have room for the food in the dutch oven!Spread the rocks out on a baking sheet and dry them overnight in the oven at about 200 °F / 93 °C. This procedure gently removes any interior moisture from the rocks, which is crucial for preventing the rocks from exploding in a high-temperature oven later.

Find rocks; dry them out in a low-temp oven

Place dried river rocks in the middle of a large dutch oven. The idea is to build a tower of heat in the middle of the pot so when you put in all the remaining ingredients, they will heat from both sides.Place the whole dutch oven in the oven at [c 225].

Build a rock tower; preheat rocks

Kombu is typically sold dry, so you’ll need to rehydrate it. We place it in a pot with boiling water for a few minutes. It is pretty hardy, so don’t be worried about overcooking it.Leave the kombu in the pot and reserve the water until you’re ready to prepare the bake, in Step 7.

Soak kombu

This step is optional, but it adds a lot of aroma to the dish. Place wood chips in a stainless steel or cast iron pan and cook on high heat. Don’t stir or agitate them; just let them sit. Once they begin to smoke a bit, turn off the heat.You can do this ahead of time if you prefer.

Char wood chips (optional)

Slice lemons in half across the middle. Remove seeds and place cut-side down in a nonstick pan on medium-low heat. Cook them until they’re almost black and super caramelized.

Lemon

Blacken lemons

Thoroughly rinse clams and soak in water for 10 minutes. Rinse and soak twice more. Reserve clams cold until needed. Thoroughly rinse mussels and remove beards. Keep mussels cold until needed. HINT: The mussel beard looks like a little piece of fuzz on the split side of the mussel. To remove, tightly grip it and pull back (towards the mussel’s hinge) and away from the mussel.Cut chorizo into small chunks about three-fourths of an inch ([cm 2]) in length.<a href="/activities/cleaning-crab">Clean crab</a>. Cut bottoms off maitake mushrooms and break apart into clusters.Clean spring onions by removing the green tops and hairy bottoms. Halve each onion and separate the rings. Remove the annoying slimy membrane that sometimes sticks to your fingers. Cut each into quarters. Clean garlic chives and mince very finely. Some chives will go in the clambake and the rest will be reserved for garnish.

Wash and prep ingredients

Let us show you.{activity:70fNEKh4BvwbJIGn2kpNCX}

Ultimate guide to purchasing, cooking, and cleaning Dungeness crab

The Ultimate Guide to Dungeness Crab

So how do I clean a crab?

Remove preheated dutch oven from the oven.Add the burned wood chips around the outside of the rock “tower.”Remove bloomed kombu from liquid and allow excess moisture to run off. Reserve the water (optional). Place kombu in the dutch oven with ends hanging over the edges.Arrange remaining ingredients around the edges of the dutch oven in the well created between the rocks and the sides of the pot. Add crab, clams, mussels, and chorizo first. Sprinkle each layer with seasoning salt as you go. Next, add spring onions and maitake mushrooms. Last, sprinkle about half of the garlic chives over everything.OPTIONAL: Pour kombu water over the hot rocks in the center. (The wet kombu will make enough steam on its own, but if you want some extra liquid in there for good measure, this optional extra step adds some nice fragrance.)Return to the oven for about 15 minutes, or until all seafood is sufficiently cooked.

Prepare the bake; cook about 15 minutes

To serve family-style, put the whole dang thing on the table, sprinkle with fresh garlic chives, and have at it. For a more elegant preparation, assemble individual plates with sea beans, geoduck, ogonori (edible seaweed), and our <a href="/activities/chorizo-and-eggs">Chorizo and Eggs</a> sauce. Read on for instructions.

Serve family-style, or add optional garnishes

All these garnishes are optional. However, if you have access to them, they really make the dish outstanding.

Plated Clambake

Prepare Chorizo and Eggs.Clean sea beans and break into small pieces about a half-inch ([cm 1]–[cm 1.5]) long.<a href="/activities/cleaning-geoduck">Clean and slice geoduck</a>. Rinse ogonori (edible seaweed).{activity:6qaQKXTFr1qhD2rfyqx8gq}

This gorgeous concoction of salty, smoky, and spicy components really ties a dish together.

Prepare garnishes

Here’s how.{activity:26bZF3aqdZlcw4fafzw84i}

How to Clean Geoduck

How do I clean that geoduck?

Place a piece of kombu in the center of each bowl, and arrange cooked ingredients on top of it. Garnish with sea beans, ogonori, geoduck, and a dollop of Chorizo and Eggs sauce. Finish with fresh garlic chives. Serve.

Plate; serve

We’ve got a clambake for you too.{activity:EAWXW4gllBsxwtfl6jD97}

A Pacific Northwest clambake with native Dungeness crab, local mussels and clams, and fragrant cedar that grows right along the beach.

Pacific Northwest Clambake

Calling all beach bums!

We love <a href="/activities/pacific-northwest-clambake?context=clambake">a good old-fashioned seaside feast</a> when the time is right. But we wondered: Is it possible to re-create that smoky, salty goodness from the comfort of a home kitchen? How can we have all the charm and flavor of the seashore without the sea?In the noble name of research, we trooped out to the beach on a recent summer morning to experience the glory of clambaking firsthand. We soaked up the sights, smells, and sounds of the real thing, then got straight to work the next morning designing an at-home version that would do it justice. We included some traditional clambake ingredients and some Northwest favorites (like Dungeness crab instead of lobster), but you can use any ingredients that will fit inside a dutch oven. We mimicked the smoky beach fire with toasted wood chips and used rehydrated kombu for a healthy dose of brine. The biggest breakthrough in the development process was the decision to lay rocks inside the cast iron cookware. We found that if you pile all the food inside the pot, it will cook from the outside in, leaving the interior undercooked and the exterior overcooked. At first, we added rocks simply to help hold heat, which worked like a charm, but it didn’t help cook the interior and exterior ingredients more evenly. On our last trial, we decided to try piling the rocks in the center so we could store heat in the middle of the pot. This way, the food would cook evenly from both the outside and the inside of the pot. To our great pleasure and surprise, it worked incredibly well! (And we’ll definitely be using that technique to help other one-pot dishes cook evenly.)Behold, the fruit of our labor—a beach clambake, hold the beach. Try it family-style, or elevate it to an elegant summer entree with salty sea beans and raw geoduck. Can’t do that at the beach, now can you?

Home Clambake

This gorgeous concoction of salty, smoky, and spicy components really ties a dish together, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQLP1dj_t8">like a culinary Persian rug</a>. Add a dollop to your fish tacos, hash browns, or fried eggs; serve it over seared halibut for a punch of color; or make it the star of a colorful salad with smoked shellfish, avocado, and fresh herbs. It pairs perfectly with all the elements of a <a href="/activities/northwest-clambake">beachside clambake</a>, and it elevates our <a href="/activities/home-clambake">Home Clambake</a> into a stunning summer entree. Heck, you might even enjoy it with a white russian. ChefSteps abides.