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NOTE: Please remember that the Canadian cooking theory does not apply when cooking shellfish, mollusks, or crustaceans.

BREADED ABALONE

Bread slices of abalone in flour, then dip them in eggs beaten with water, and roll them in crumbs. Sauté in butter as in the recipe above.

FRIED ABALONE

Slice and tenderize abalone and cut into thin strips. Heat fat or oil in a deep fryer to 375°. Dip the pieces of abalone into beer batter for frying (page 99) and fry until delicately browned. Salt and pepper to taste.

ABALONE CHOWDER

This is made in the same way you make clam chowder (pages 55–57) except that the abalone is cooked in chicken broth until tender and then ground. The ground abalone is added to the potatoes while they are cooking.

STUFFED ABALONE

From Helen Evans Brown’s West Coast Cook Book.

For each serving:

1 lobster tail, sliced

2 tablespoons crabmeat

3 or 4 shrimp

Butter

1 abalone steak

Sauce béchamel (page 23)

Sauté the lobster tail, crabmeat, and shrimp in butter for 2 or 3 minutes. Sauté the abalone steaks lightly for about 45 seconds, or even less. Brush the cooked steak with sauce béchamel flavored with sherry. Dip the shellfish in the sauce and place on top of the abalone. Roll each steak and fasten with a toothpick. Brush with more sauce and run under the broiler to brown lightly.

CANNED ABALONE, CHINESE STYLE

4 or 5 large Chinese black mushrooms

1 cup chicken stock

1-pound can of abalone

5 water chestnuts, sliced

4 green onions, split and cut into 1-inch lengths

1/2 cup sliced celery

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sherry

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Soak the mushrooms in water for 2 or 3 hours, then cut them into strips. In a cup of chicken stock with the juice from the canned abalone, simmer the water chestnuts, the onions, and the celery. After 5 minutes, add the sliced abalone, soy sauce, and sherry. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water and stir it in. Stir until the sauce is thickened. Serve with rice.

This will serve 4 to 10 people, depending on whether it’s a Chinese or American meal.

Clams

We in America are fonder of clams than are the people of other nations. And fortunately for us, our shoreline is well supplied with them.

Clams come in a variety that is often confusing to the inlander. Two main species make up the bulk of East Coast clamming — the soft or long-necked clam (Mya arenaria) and the hard or little-necked clam (Venus mercenaria). Many New Englanders will assure you that the soft clam is the only “real” or “true” clam. The exclusiveness of this claim may possibly be attributed to the fact that Mya is abundant north of Cape Cod but scarce to the south. New Englanders refer to the hard clam by its Indian name, quahog, while other Easterners more often call it the “littleneck” or “round clam.” The species begins to be abundant south of the Cape, is especially plentiful on the North Carolina and Florida shores, and occurs all the way to Texas.

The Pacific Coast has some thirty varieties of clams, dominated by the razor clam, the famous Pismo clam, and the large mud clam. There is also that odd, gargantuan member of the clam family called the geoduck, goeduck, or gweduc (pronounced gooey-duck). It has an excellent flavor but, sad to say, is not generally obtainable in the markets.

Like the razor clam, New England’s soft clam is a tide-flat dweller with a long tubelike siphon. It is a deep burrower and is taken by digging. The hard or littlenecked variety generally lives in deeper water, is not so active in its burrowing, and is taken by long-handled rakes or tongs and by dredging.

In my opinion, the razor clam — correctly prepared — is unsurpassed in flavor and texture. When I was a child and living near the Oregon coast, I used to dig them by the bucketful in the early morning when the tide was out. My mother sautéed them in butter, cooked them as delicately light fritters, or made them into magnificent chowder. You may now buy the Pacific Coast razor clam, minced, in cans. The canned variety is