The New England clambake is a great method of cooking foods, fresh seafood such as lobster, mussels, crabs, clams, and quahogs. The seafood is often supplemented by sausages, potatoes, onions, carrots, corn-on-the-cob, etc. A New England Clambake is usually held on festive occasions along the coast of New England.

The classic recipe for a New England Clambake starts with gathering seaweed along the shore; it's a vital ingredient for helping to prepare the food. You will need a container large enough to hold the seaweed and a goodly amount of sea water. You will also need several round stones, medium in size, to be heated in the pit. Stones, or often cannon balls, are used to absorb and radiate heat in the cooking process.

A cover is absolutely necessary to cook by steaming. This allows the heat to be trapped so that steam can completely cook the food. Products that work as covers for steaming food are often canvas tarps or potato sacks soaked in water. These methods allow air to escape so that the food can be more thoroughly cooked.

Steaming creates a harmony of various flavors because it allows all of the ingredients to merge and blend slowly. It does this without over-cooking, which is very important when preparing shellfish since different types require different cooking times. Though the preparation time for squid is much longer than that of fish, which itself is much longer than that of shrimp, steaming allows diverse ingredients to be cooked together with a much lower risk of overcooking any of the individual contents.

For a truly great clambake, you must have the freshest seafood. A New England Clambake and a Cape Cod Clambake are very similar. Both include basically the same ingredients. The Cape Cod Clambake is cooked in the same fashion as the New England, too.

Many believe that there is nothing tastier than a clambake and whilst I may argue about people's tastes, I cannot disagree with a clambake being amongst the greatest dishes a seafood lover will ever experience.

The classic recipe for a New England Clambake starts with gathering seaweed along the shore; it is a vital ingredient for helping to prepare the food. You will also need several round stones, medium in size, to be heated in the pit. Stones, or often cannon balls, are used to absorb and radiate heat in the cooking process. To make the clambake worthwhile, it is desirable to use fresh seafood. Both clambakes use very similar ingredients and the methods used for preparing the Cape Cod Clambake are the same as those used to prepare that made in New England.