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Clams and Clamming: Books and Links
- Individuals Clamming - Western NA
- Individuals Clamming - Eastern NA
- Clamming Books
- Cookbooks
- Recipes
- Educational Institutions
- Media
- Pictures
- Government & Trade Groups
- Equipment
- Tide Charts
- Now in Archive.org
Individuals Clamming - Western North America
- A nicely done YouTube video on Clamming in Alaska June 2008. After this, YouTube will, of course, offer you many more clam videos to watch.
- Razor Clams: Digging, Cleaning & Cooking has some pictures of people digging in North Cove and Grayland, Washington State.
- Clam Digging on the Kenai Peninsula [archive.org] is a site from Alaska. Starts with a picture of a couple razor clams, an intro, then tabs at the bottom take you to the other sections.
- In Clam Digging [archive.org] Margaret Doran tells the story of the day she and her boyfriend went digging for clams.
- Bob's Piscatorial Pursuits charter / guide service offer clamming trips to their clients to the Kenai Peninsula. See: Ninilchik & Clam Gulch, Alaska Razor Clam. Has pictures, info and tide tables. Scroll down (along left) for links to How To pages, like How to Clean Razor Clams.
- Uncle Mike's Guide to the Real Oregon Coast by Michael Burgess has Clam Digging which notes that "It's not, to begin with, even vaguely romantic."
- Razor clam seasons and beaches from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
- Jack Cloutier, clam digger [archive.org] is an example of local ways of living that still persist in the Greater Portland area of Maine.
- The Barnstable Natural Resources Division offers several useful pages, including regulations, how to use a gauge, guide to shellfishing, shellfishing maps. and videos.
Stalking The Blue-Eyed Scallop by Euell Gibbons. This foraging and cooking classic was first published in 1964 and has continued ever since to be one of Americans most appreciated works on the subject of edibles that abound in and around tidal areas. A delightful book on the immense variety of foods which can be gathered by the ocean's edge. It has hundreds of recipes for both commonplace and exotic "fruits of the sea". Not all are easy to find. The book has line-drawn illustrations.
The Compleat Clammer, Revised by Christopher Reaske covers how to gather and prepare clams, oysters, mussels and scallops, for seaside foragers and food lovers on all coasts. The book presents details on the equipment needed and biological information. More detail on the author is in a Boston U press release: Summer Fun on the Half-Shell [that is now in archive.org]. The single review gives it a 5.
Shells and Shellfish of the Pacific Northwest: A Field Guide by Rick M. Harbo. This comprehensive field guide covers more than 250 species of mollusks - clams, oysters, scallops, chitons and more - whose range extends from Alaska to B.C. to Washington, Oregon and California. All species are depicted in color photographs, with corresponding descriptions of habits, habitat, physical features, abundance, etc. The single review gives it a 5.
Clams: How to Find, Catch, and Cook Them by Curtis J. Badger is a practical, illustrated how to book that describes the best ways to clam, including where to find the creatures, what equipment to use, and how to collect and cook them with dozens of tasty clam recipes included. The author, a veteran clammer along Virginia's clam rich Eastern Shore, also examines the natural history of clams and answers frequently asked questions about them.
Evergreen Pacific Shellfish Guide by J.D. Wade. The book covers
Washington and Oregon States and is noted for its maps showing harvest areas. Identifies different varieties of clams. Has tips, including how to "shuck" an oyster. Some recipes. Discover the best time of year to harvest Mediterranean mussels. Has illustrations and color photos.
Secrets of Shellfishing by Edward R. Ricciuti. A little book that will get you started. It lists the tools you need and a lot of helpful hints.
Edible? Incredible! by Marjorie Furlong & Virginia Pill. Each double page spread has color photographs of various species of edible seashore life, faced with a page of text describing what they are, where to find them, and how to prepare and cook them. Includes crabs, mussels, limpets, abalone, snails, clams, and much more. [Description from pamphlet.]
A Recreational Guide to Oystering, Clamming, Shrimping & Crabbing in South Carolina by Charles J. Moore. Contents: Blue Crabs, Cooking and Cleaning Blue Crabs, Shrimp, Identifying South Carolina Shrimp, Throwing a Cast Net, Oysters, Clams, Key to State Shellfish and Public Oyster Grounds, Locator Map of State Shellfish and Public Oyster Grounds, State Shellfish and Public Oyster Ground MAPS, Regulations pertaining to Taking of Shellfish for Personal Consumption in South Carolina. There was a copy when I added this link, but then someone from here bought it.
The Clammer (1906). Pictorial green cover with gold lettering. Well, there was a copy when I added this link, but then someone from here bought it. Now there is a reprint.
A Guide to Recreational Clamming: Keyholing by North Carolina Sea Grant describes several recreational clamming techniques and explains in detail "keyholing," recognizing the unique holes left in the sand by clams as they filter water. Clam recipes are included. A black and white spiral reprint. Here's a PDF on the web [archive.org].
Clamming on the Coos by Kathleen P Yusko. No product description or reviews at Amazon.
Sunset Beachcomber's Guide to the Pacific Coast: Tidepools, Clamming by Bob, Ed Thompson. No product description or reviews at Amazon.
A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America by Rowan Jacobsen. This book is incredibly well written, witty at times and very informative. You can learn how oysters are farmed and their various techniques, like how they get to harden those shells. The book has a flawless 5 star rating at Amazon. [Kindle edition available.]
Consider the Oyster by M. F. K. Fisher tells tales of the oyster, both from a natural history and culinary history perspective. There are recipes and food advice. This is a classic for oyster lovers that was written in 1941.
Sex, Death and Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour by Robb Walsh chronicles a five-year global culinary road trip that takes Walsh from his local Galveston Bay to the coasts of North America, and off to Ireland, England, and France. Fact-filled and laced throughout with his wry humor, Walsh recounts the hundreds of oysters shucked and prepared in myriad ways, and offers a fascinating history that goes beyond the expected, revealing coastal rivalries, recipes, shucking tips, and what to drink with your oyster. The Amazon reviews average to 5 stars. [Picture is of hard cover edition, this link is to the new paperback edition.] [Kindle edition available.]
Consider the Oyster: A Shucker's Field Guide by Patrick McMurray. The author one of the world's elite competitive oyster shuckers, he operates an oyster bar in Toronto, he grow oysters, he writes about oysters with passion and joy. He weaves together anecdotes with practical information on everything from opening oysters with finesse (and a minimum of personal injury!) to planning an oyster party, finding the best oyster bars and ordering hard-to-get bivalves on the Internet. Color photographs. The single Amazon review gives it five stars. [Picture is of hard cover edition, this link is to the bargain edition.]
The P&J Oyster Cookbook by Kit Wohl and Sunseri Family. A collaboration between a local food writer and a New Orleans oyster dealer. It is a culmination of oyster recipes from master chefs. Each recipe has a full-page color photo.
Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook by Elaine Tammi, Karin Tammi. This compendium of scallop information offers biological facts and scores of recipes. The New England seafood industry—past and present—is also discussed. To be published February 28, 2011.
The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses by Brooke Dojny. The book is a travel guide for seafood lovers touring the Northeast while simultaneously offering recipes. The book also offers tips on how to eat lobster, shuck oysters, dig clams and fillet a fish. This older edition is plentiful on the used market and evenly sells with the 2nd Edition.
The Hog Island Oyster Lover's Cookbook: A Guide to Choosing and Savoring Oysters, with 40 Recipes by Jairemarie Pomo. This authoritative cookbook explains how to choose from among the dozens of varieties. How to handle, shuck, and serve; or store them. Plus how to order them at an oyster bar. There are 40 recipes and 40 color photos from a farm that raises them and a San Francisco oyster bar.
The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food by Jasper White. This is only partly a clam cookbook, but the cover does feature a clam steamer and the book gets a flawless 5 star rating at Amazon.
The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: 2nd Edition Completely updated with new restaurants and travel plans for eating around New England by Brooke Dojny. Covers clam shack traditions with nearly 100 recipes gathered from the region's best casual seafood eateries. Here are all New England classic seafood preparations, from clam chowder to lazy man's lobster. All the sides and sweets are here too, as well as the names and addresses of more than 100 eateries, plus three regional weekend itineraries for the true clam shack devotee. The few reviews do give it a perfect 5 rating.
The Great Mussel and Clam Cookbook (Great Seafood Series). Filled with recipes and color photographs.
Simply Shellfish: Quick and Easy Recipes for Shrimp, Crab, Scallops, Clams, Mussels, Oysters, Lobster, Squid, and Sides by Leslie Glover Pendleton has 125 shellfish recipes that can be made in less than an hour, with some preparation done ahead of time. Covers soups, stews, appetizers, main courses and sides. For most of the recipes, shellfish type can vary.
Abalone Book by Peter Howorth. Identification key, information on cleaning and preparation, plus plenty of recipes. 80 pages.
Oysters: A Culinary Celebration with 185 Recipes by Joan Reardon. This is the 2004 new edition. Chapters include appetizers, soups, salads & vegetables, breads & pastries, oyster entrees, and oysters & entrees. Chapters start out with general guidelines. A gallery of color photographs covers oyster species with their geographical source.
101 Oyster Recipes - 1907 Reprint: One Hundred & One Ways Of Serving Oysters by Ross Brown. This is a complete reprint of the classic cookbook "101 Oyster Recipes - One Hundred & One Ways of Serving Oysters" by May Southworth, originally published in 1907.
Oysters by John Demers and Andrew Jaeger. For the experienced purist or the enthusiastic novice who wants to slurp'em down raw, they offer essentials for purchasing, cleaning, and shucking. Written by a New Orleans restauranteur.
The Great Scallop and Oyster Cookbook (Great Seafood Series). Filled with recipes and color photographs.
Recipes and reminiscences of forty years among the shellfish: Clams, Mussels, Oysters, Scallops, and Snails: A Cookbook and a Memoir by Howard Mitcham. Published June 1990.
- Epicurious Food Dictionary's clam page has info on many of the edible clams in North America.
- How To Have A Traditional clam Bake [archive.org] is a basic page on cooking in a pit dug in the sand.
- The Beercook web site has a recipe for Clam Chili with Bock Beer.
- Many papers were written with funding from the NOAA Sea Grant. PDFs of them were put on the web by National Sea Grant Library (NSGL). Now all are in archive.org:
- A Guide to Recreational Clamming: Keyholing. Tourist oriented. Covers North Carolina.
- Alaska clam poster. Has drawings of 12 types of clams with information as to distribution, size, and identification.
- Breaking into Bivalves. Covers shucking oysters, clams and scallops.
- Clam Recipes From Around The United States. Has clams in chowders, on the half shell, roasted, stuffed, deviled, and pickled.
- Gathering Safe Shellfish in Washington: Avoiding Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. August 1989.
- Gathering Safe Shellfish in Washington: Avoiding Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. 1994.
- How to make a clam shell fly... A short story from Maine.
- How to Shuck a Hard Clam With Ease... From New Jersey. Includes recipe for Atlantic City Steamed Clams.
- Oregon's Captivating Clams. A six page flyer from about 1987.
- The Hard Clam. Five pages on what you need to know for recreational clamming in Delaware.
- The Alaska Outdoor Journal has Treasures of the Beach: Clam Digging on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska [archive.org]. This is very detailed on how to dig for razor clams.
- Clean clams? Douse, douse, snip, snip by Judith Blake is an article from The Seattle Times on what to do with your bucket of razor clams.
- The Seattle Times has The Geoduck Chronicles -- How an obscure bivalve became the object of international desire, a long article on the world's biggest burrowing clam and how it has become desirable in Asia.
- Clamming on the Oregon Coast is from The South Coast Recreation Guide. It pictures and discusses Horseneck Clams (Gaper Clams).
- You can do a Google image search on Razor Clams and get 100s of images.
- See some Alaska razor clams nearly as big as your hand! Plus it's 60 razors per day. See How to Clean Razor Clams.
- Oyster Rake closeup. In addition to gathering oysters from the river beds, it can be used for digging bar clams which were buried beneath the sand.
- The Washington State Department of Fishing & Wildlife highlights razor clams on their home page. They have many pages. Some selected ones are:
- Map of Razor Clam Beaches
- Shellfishing Regulations
- Geoduck Clams
- How to Dig Geoduck Clams [archive.org]
- Cleaning and Preparing Geoduck [archive.org]
- References on Geoduck Clams [archive.org]
- How to Dig Razor Clams
- Domoic Acid
- How Recreational Razor Clam Seasons are Set [archive.org]
- How Many Razor Clams Are There? [archive.org]
- How to Prevent Wastage [archive.org]
- King County in Washington State put up Beach Assessment Clam Identification Key. Has information with many pictures on how to tell types of clams apart. At the bottom is a link to an abbreviated version.
- The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has a page for shellfish licenses and regulations.
- The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has Rare Mussels and Clams. See pictures of many. They also have a Summary of Clamming Regulations for Wisconsin Waters.
- The Maine Shellfish Officers Association has 24 chapters on Maine State Regulations Pertaining to Shellfish Harvesting, Handling, and Culturing [archive.org].
- The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has Recreational Shellfish Regulations 9scroll down). And Shell Diameters.
- The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries has Regulations and 2018 Rhode Island General Laws: Title 20 - Fish and Wildlife: Chapter 20-6 Shellfish.
- The Connecticut Department of Agriculture has a Connecticut Shellfish Industry Profile and Shellfish Requirements for the commercial industry.
- In NY the Town of Southampton has Shellfish: General Information, Seasonal Closure Maps and Permit Information.
- In NJ there is a Bureau of Shellfisheries which directs shellfish programs and projects. They are described here. On another page is Shellfish License Information.
- Clams [archive.org] gets into the buying, handling, storage tips and nutritional information.
- The National Shellfisheries Association has a site. See Web Resources and Shellfish Forum.
- Killer Clam Rakes makes custom clam rakes out of stainless steel. It was developed after many years of frustration using store bought rakes.
Oxo Good Grips Clam Knife ships from Amazon. A good item to use as filler to get up to the free shipping threshold.
If you want a more traditional clam or oyster knife in a choice of sizes and metals, see R. Murphy Knives's store page.
- Stainless Steel Mesh Hand Glove - Cut Resistant. At Amazon
- The Clam Out Equipment Co. in Pennsylvania has clam rakes, knives, gloves, baskets, and kitchen items. Products are sold retail in nearby coastal states, or by mail for people further away.
- The R.A. Ribb Company in Massachusetts has a line of Recreational Rakes, some of which are for clams.
- Tideschart has tide predictions for the next two days or week. Search for location.
- The NOAA has a site on Tide Data. There is a list of station locations with graphs of the current and upcoming tides. Or pop up a map to find the station nearest to your interest.
- The Massachusetts Marine Trades Association has Massachusetts Tide Charts. Includes printable charts for select locations for the next six months.
- A Vancouver classified ads website has a couple articles of interest to us here: From the Booklocker: The Joy of Oysters is a detailed book review. And Galleyman: Tasty Clam Chowders has several recipes.
- Tutka Bay Taxi: Clamming and Collecting. Various shellfish can be gathered in the Tutka Bay/Sadie Cove area.
- In Clean clams? Douse, douse, snip, snip Linda Ferrier, a lifelong razor-clam digger, shares some of her tips.
- A resort in Westport, Washington has a small page Clam Digging Clams - - Can you dig 'em?. Tells of each year thousands of people come to Washington's Pacific coast beaches in search of clams. [-->To see this page you have to type Ctrl-A.]
- Razor clam, clam digging and PSP is about clam digging in Alaska. Also has some precautions on Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP).
- Oregon State University has Information on digging for Eastern softshell clams. Softshells are a tasty little imported clam that hitch-hiked to the Oregon coastal bays late in the 19th century.
- Clamming 101: How beginners can get quahogs out of the water and onto a dinner plate is a good place to start. Includes a picture of a rake.
- Clam diggers move to ban clam divers is a report about a petition signed by 65 Waldoboro (Maine) diggers asking for an immediate stop to the practice of digging clams using scuba equipment. Here's a followup story: Scuba clammers worry the others.
- All About CLAMS... covers the clam's life cycle all the way to storage and cleaning.
- Pacific Coast Clams is a page from a Coloring Book.
- Razor clam and Native American clamming basket..
- Mom and Dad Clam Digging in Washington 1981 has example of clam digging tubes. Scroll down for picture.
- Mid-Atlantic Foods has Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Clams!. Covers harvest area, species, harvesting, processing, and more.
- Lummi Indian Nation Shellfish Operations in Bellingham, WA sells clams and oysters and seed.
- Clam Pouches is a recipe with clams and other ingredients wrapped in foil and then backed. From the Savoir Faire television series.
- The Food Science department at Oregon State University has a page on Clam, Food Resource. There are excerpts from a couple of publications and a picture of three men digging in the sand.
- The Wiscasset Newspaper (in Maine) published 'Expert' Clammer Offers Tips For Seaside Gleaners, an interview with Dr. Reaske.
- The Cape Cod Times published Shell Game: Clamming brings fresh seafood to the surface in 2000. This is a story of a novice clammer and what she and her daughters learned.
- Let's go... Clamming is a basic introduction with pictures. Put up by Rashomon.
- Northwest Clamming. Has some basic information and notes that along the Washington and Oregon Coast line you will find six common clams: the butter, cockle, horse or gaper, and the geoduck, littleneck, and the razor. Unfortunately the pictures don't come up. There is also a New England Clam Chowder Recipe.
- Around Maine put up Clamming in Scarborough, Maine. It discusses clamming on the various conservation sites. Mostly on commercial clamming.