And a few incidents of food poisoning from Great South Bay squashed demand. By 1982, however, this number had dropped to less than 4 million pounds. In 1947 clam landings in New York reached a peak of over 10 million pounds of meats. “Even today, my kids and I get soft-shell clams and hard-shell clams and just sit on the beach and eat them.”Īccounts from as late as the 1800s regularly describe New Yorkers finding clams as big as a man’s head.

A few years ago, Josephine Smith, a Shinnecock and native cook, told us that her ancestors made soups of clams, potatoes and wild onions before Europeans arrived. Long before the Grand Central Oyster Bar was serving clam pan roasts, the shore-based diet of the Shinnecock Indians was riddled with the mollusk. New York has historically been the largest supplier of clams in the country–most of them moved through Fulton Fish Market–as well as one of the largest clam consuming states. For most of past few centuries, the value of clam landings equaled or exceeded the value of all other seafood caught in the state. But for a variety of climatic, cultural, and economic reasons, the opprobrium didn’t take hold in eastern Long Island, where clam has long been an important food source, and where it yielded an astonishing range of dishes, like clam pie.Īnd despite this bottom of the food chain rep, the humble clam has been a mighty valuable New York crop. “Clam digger” was the derogatory term given to Long Islanders by inhabitants of New York City, and food historian Sandra Oliver notes ” a bit of embarrassment associated with eating clams,” in parts of northern New England. (And for far more on clam pies, including a 1948 recipe, scroll to the bottom of the page.) Why They’re Important:Ĭlams haven’t always been so en vogue. And because today - in your kitchen, at Eat Drink Local restaurants, and across this great region - is the day of clams, our first of the 11 Ingredients of the Day. Because, like many pies, clam pie - at its simplest, clams, potatoes and onions baked in a pie crust - gets better when it’s reheated. “She would make cinnamon buns from the extra pie dough.” The Ingredient:Ĭlams. If you had planned ahead you would have baked a clam pie last night. East Hampton bayman Albie Lester learned how to make clam pie by watching his grandmother.

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