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clam shopping notes ••• When buying raw clams, avoid any clam whose shell has opened or looks damaged. If your fish market selects your clams for you, be sure the fishmonger chooses them carefully, checking for quality—and not simply with the eyes, either; a top-quality purveyor will “knock” the clams together lightly as he selects them, listening for the higher, hollow tone that indicates the clam has lost its liquid and should be discarded.

CHEESE RELISH

serves 16 as a snack, with crackers • TIME: 10 minutes preparation, 2 hours refrigeration

Washington, D.C., Matt’s birthplace, isn’t well regarded for its food traditions, but our ears perked up when former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr.’s niece, Barbara Harr, told us about his favorite sandwich spread, an unusual pimento cheese variant and D.C. specialty known as “cheese relish.” Where the pimento cheese we know and love contains cheddar and roasted red peppers, this spread has Swiss cheese and yellow banana peppers, with capers mixed in. We couldn’t locate an original source (please alert us if you know more), so we developed this formula, which has the Swiss cheese flavor we adore plus the unique soft heat of banana peppers, in equal balance, punctuated by salty capers. It tastes best when prepared a day before serving, so the flavors have time to marinate in the fridge. Try it spread on crackers as a snack, or in a grilled sandwich, served with a glass of dry Riesling.

10 ounces Swiss cheese, finely grated (about 3½ cups)

One 12-ounce jar banana peppers (hot if available), drained and minced

3 tablespoons sour cream

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon crushed dried red chile flakes

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

2 tablespoons drained capers, soaked in fresh water for 1 minute and then drained again

With a spatula, combine all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until evenly blended. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

LEE BROS. SHRIMP PÂTÉ

serves 12 as a cocktail-hour snack • TIME: 10 minutes preparation, 12 minutes cooking

We call our riff on the classic Charleston shrimp paste “Shrimp Pâté” simply because the word “paste” doesn’t sound appetizing. Call it what you wish, shrimp paste is a recipe prized as much for versatility as for flavor: it is served in tea sandwiches in the afternoon, spread on crackers or celery sticks at the cocktail hour, and is also wonderful the following morning, stirred into a bowl of stone-ground grits. Blanche Rhett’s Two Hundred Years of Charleston Cooking, one of the city’s seminal cookbooks, contains three different recipes for shrimp paste, each of which has a different approach to flavoring: one is studded with diced bell pepper and onion, another is spiced with nutmeg, and one couldn’t be simpler: butter, shrimp, and salt. But all three recipes call for baking the paste until it browns.

We aimed to simplify things without compromising an ounce on the flavor. We did away with the baking, and we dialed back the quantity of sherry that usually finds its way into shrimp paste because we think that even the mellowest fortified wine can overpower the delicate sweetness of the shrimp. We tried some flights of fancy—ginger and lemon zest—which worked out okay, but in the end we returned, again, to simplicity. This mixture of steamed fresh shrimp, unsalted butter, and sherry needs nothing more than a touch of lemon juice, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. (See photograph.)

1 pound headless large shell-on shrimp (26 to 30 per pound; see Shrimp Shopping Notes)

1¼ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature

1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste

1½ tablespoons dry sherry

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

Crackers, celery sticks, or toasted baguette slices, for serving

1 Peel the shrimp, discarding the shells, and devein them (see Notes on Deveining Shrimp).