Stuffies are a thing on Cape Cod, partly because they go way back — a lot of people here grew up on them and have family recipes they swear are the best version. And they’re a thing because we love our clams. The briny, creamy, chewy savoriness of this bivalve is one of our fundamental comfort foods. And if you dig your own, even better.
Look up “stuffies” and you’ll find a lot of lore about how they were first served at a Rhode Island resort called the Narraganset Pier Casino in the early 1900s. In “Clams Casino,” littlenecks are chopped, returned to the half shell with breadcrumbs and bacon, and then broiled.
But why wouldn’t stuffies date at least to the 17th century, when the Europeans arrived with their tradition of stuffings from sausages to fowl. Lacking ingredients familiar to them in Europe, they would have adapted to what the local environment provided. And there is plenty of evidence that what was here were clams.
Stuffed clams may go even farther back. We know clams were a vital part of the Wampanoag and Narragansett diets along this Atlantic coast. There is evidence people in these communities were harvesting poquauhock — large hard-shell clams — from tidal flats thousands of years ago; they prepared them in a variety of ways, including baking them in earthen pits.
I like to use both quahogs and sea clams for my stuffies. Sea clams, or Atlantic surf clams, Spisula solidissima, are harvested from deeper waters. They’re more triangle-shaped and have thinner shells and a very large “foot” that provides a lot of naturally sweet meat. Quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria, are familiar to everyone here by the names they’re given when sorted by size: littlenecks, topnecks, cherrystones, and quahogs.
For this recipe, if you can, go out and dig your own clams. In summer in Wellfleet that means Indian Neck. At other times, check with the town for areas approved for taking shellfish. You need a recreational license. The clams have to be at least an inch wide measured across the hinge to be legal for harvest — but you want even bigger ones for stuffed clams.
If you can’t dig your own, well, what can I say? There are markets. Typically, fish markets here carry littlenecks and cherrystones, but it never hurts to call ahead and see if they can get some “hogs.” You can also buy chopped clams — these are sea clams. Still, you’re going to have at least some shucking to do because you need shells to stuff. You could ask your fishmonger for some, but they don’t grow on trees.
The earliest versions of stuffed clams were likely pretty simple: clam meat chopped and mixed with crumbs, herbs from kitchen gardens, and fat such as pork drippings or butter.
Over time, the dish became more elaborate. Italian-American communities in Rhode Island and Connecticut added ingredients like garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and oregano to the stuffing. Portuguese immigrants influenced recipes here, with additions of spicy linguiça sausage, peppers, and paprika to the mix. I like them all, but I’m not a fan of too much sausage or bacon — you don’t want to lose the flavor of the clams themselves.
Whatever you do for seasonings, there are two keys to a good stuffie. One is a generous proportion of clam meat to breadcrumbs. The other is the broth that is produced when you steam the quahogs to get the meat — it’s an important flavor addition.
There’s one other bit of magic that my friend Josiah Mayo is pretty adamant about: you must splash each stuffie with some sherry before it goes in the oven and about halfway through cooking. I do as he says, and I also like to put a small pat of butter on each stuffie before baking.
Making these from scratch is lots of fun, and the results are amazing. I never know exactly how many stuffies I will make, because that depends on how many clams I get. But when I make a big batch, we eat what we can and freeze the rest. Stuffies freeze really well, even after you have baked them.
MAC’S STUFFED CLAMS
Makes approximately 8-12
16 quahogs (or 18 cherrystones)
8 surf clams or 1 pint of chopped clams
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced white onion
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs (or plain plus 1 tsp. dried oregano)
4 oz. butter
½ cup sherry or brandy
½ cup dry white wine for cooking, plus 1 cup for drinking while you are cooking
½ to 1 cup chopped linguiça or bacon, rendered
1 bunch parsley, rough chopped
1 tsp. baking powder (optional)
Salt and pepper
- If you are using your own sea clams, good for you. Just make sure that you rinse them well to get all the sand out of them. Cut the bellies out and discard them. Shuck and clean the meat, reserving the juice. If you’re not shucking your own, just drain the chopped sea clams.
- Steam the quahogs or cherrystones: Rinse and then place fresh quahogs in a pot with a half cup each of wine and water plus 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 4-5 minutes or just until the clams open. Remove clams from pot and let cool, reserving the broth. When broth is cool, pour it off into a measuring cup, being careful to exclude sand from the bottom of the pot. Pull the clams out of the shells, reserving the shells. Chop the clam meat roughly into 2 or 3 pieces.
- In a cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan, make a mirepoix: sweat the carrots, celery, and onion with a tablespoon of butter over medium heat until very soft, approximately 10-12 minutes. Add chopped garlic and sweat mixture for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Render the linguiça or bacon until just cooked.
- Mix the mirepoix with all the chopped clams. Stir the baking powder, if using, into the breadcrumbs, and add one cup of the breadcrumbs to the clam and vegetable mixture. Stir in the rendered meat and the chopped parsley. Pour about a quarter to a half cup of your steamed clam broth into the mixture. If it seems too wet, add more breadcrumbs and adjust until the stuffing has a nice texture that holds together, similar to raw dough.
- Take that mixture and stuff it into the clam shells — but don’t stuff too hard. You want the stuffies to be firm but not tightly packed. Once all the stuffing is used, place stuffed clams on a baking sheet and top each with a pat of butter and a splash of sherry.
- Bake for about 18-22 minutes at 375° F, adding another splash of sherry to each stuffie at the 10-minute mark if you are so inclined. They may be bubbling and look golden brown at that point, but give them another 5-10 minutes so they’re hot all the way through.
