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Rich Clam, Poor Clam

If you are visiting this page, it's probably because you saw my mini-exhibit Rich Clam, Poor Clam as a part of Snapshots: 15 Takes on an Exhibition at Tufts University. I hope you enjoyed it! 

Recipes



Lobster à la Newburg
2 cups of boiled lobster cut in large dice  
1 cup of sherry
1 pint of cream
1 glass of Sauterne
Yolks of 2 eggs
1 tablespoonful of butter
Have the water boiling in the lower of the electric chafing dish. Put lobster with the butter in the blazer the current on to full heat and stir until the butter is all melted and lobster thoroughly heated. Mix the sherry with the cream and the yolks of eggs pour over the lobster in the dish and allow the ingredients to come to the boiling point. Pour the of Sauterne over the whole and serve very hot. Season with salt and paprika.
New York Edison Company. Recipes for Cooking by Electricity. Edison Company, 1911.

This recipe is from “Recipes for Cooking by Electricity” by the New York Edison Company. Published in 1911, the book encouraged the recent inclination for middle-class women to do light cooking in front of guests, rather than preparing all food in the kitchen to maintain the illusion that they had a full staff of servants. Combining trendy elegance with frugality, each recipe included the cost of the electrical current to make the dish: the cost of current for Lobster à la Newburg was two cents.

Lobster à la Newburg in a modern kitchen:
Serves two as a main dish, or four as a side dish. Serve with crusty bread or over pasta or rice.

1 6.5 oz can of lobster meat
2 cups sherry
1 pint of light cream
Yolks of 2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
salt and paprika to taste

  • Boil water in a saucepan over high heat.
  • Combine the butter and lobster in a double boiler over the saucepan, stirring occasionally.
  • Whisk one cup of the sherry with the egg yolks and cream.
  • Add this mixture to the lobster and butter and stir.
  • When the mixture comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add the remaining sherry.
  • Serve hot with salt and paprika to taste.

Corn Oysters
These are the proportions. To one pint of corn pulp, add two well beaten eggs, yolks and whites separately, half a teaspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of pepper, and two tablespoonfuls of flour, or just enough to keep the corn and egg together. Less flour may be used when the corn is old and the juice is thick. They may be fried in butter or salt pork fat: use rather more fat than for frying common griddle cakes. Drop from a tablespoon on the hot fat and turn when nicely browned. Vary them occasionally by using double the amount of seasoning and fry them in small oval shape; they will then have a flavor quite like oysters.
The American Kitchen Magazine. Home Science Publishing Company, 1896.

This vegetarian dish is a variation on corn fritters. They are called “corn oysters” because of their resemblance to fried oysters. New Englanders would eat them alongside fried seafood. The 1896 recipe above is from The American Kitchen Magazine, published in Boston.

Corn Oysters in a modern kitchen: Serves four.
2 ½ ears of raw corn or 2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 eggs
2 tablespoons white flour
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter, for frying


  • If using fresh corn, which is ideal, cut the corn off of the cob using a sharp knife.
  • Chop the kernels very roughly. It is fine if some kernels are whole when you are done. Do not drain off any corn liquid, but use it in the batter.
  • Beat the eggs stir in the flour, salt, and pepper, and then add the corn and stir until coated.
  • Melt the butter in a frying pan or wok over high heat. Drop the corn batter in a tablespoon at a time.
  • Cook until golden brown. Drain the corn oysters on a paper towel. Serve hot.
Bibliography
Recommended reading is starred, with comments below.



*Coffin, Robert P. Tristram. Mainstays of Maine. New York: Macmillan, 1944.

I highly recommend this charming little book, which is probably best described as a food memoir. It's heavy on nostalgia and on mouth-watering descriptions.




Cummings, O. Richard, and Edward D. Leavitt. Street Cars to Old Orchard Beach: The Biddeford & Saco Railroad and Connecting Lines. 1st edition. Harold E. Cox, n.d.


*Elias, Megan J. Food in the United States, 1890-1945. Food in American History. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

         A solid short introduction to food trends in most of the time period covered in the exhibition.


* Neustadt, Kathy. Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1992.

        This book is food history and anthropological case study that does a great job of balancing the historical and pseudohistorical traditions and myths around the subject.

New York Edison Company.  Recipes for Cooking by Electricity. Edison Company, 1911.

Oliver, Sandra L, and Mystic Seaport Museum. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food, at Sea and Ashore, in the Nineteenth Century. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1995.


If you want more recipes from the past, this book is a great source.


Stavely, Keith, and Kathleen Fitzgerald. America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking. 1ST edition. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.


Tatterson, Estelle M. Three Centuries of Biddeford: An Historical Sketch, 1916.

The American Kitchen Magazine. Home Science Publishing Company, 1896.


Wallach, Jennifer Jensen. How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture. The American Ways Series. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.


*Wilson, Bee. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. New York: Basic Books, 2012.

        This book is less related to Rich Clam, Poor Clam than the others, but it is a great read as a holistic introduction to what food means in the kitchen and dining room.


If you have a recipe that means something to you or to the place you live, please share it in the comments.

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