The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses [Paperback]

Brooke Dojny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2003

Stop any Yankee on the street and ask the name of his or her favorite restaurant, and you'll be directed to a Connecticut clam shack . . . or a Maine lobster pound . . . or a Massachusetts chowder house. In these rustic eateries, you find the freshest seafood prepared according to classic, decades-old, family recipes. Mountains of whole-belly fried clams. Steaming bowls of rich, creamy chowder. Sweet lobster boiled in seawater. Fresh, succulent cod fillets fried golden brown.

In THE NEW ENGLAND CLAM SHACK COOKBOOK, author and native New Englander Brooke Dojny presents traditional New England fare as it is served up in 25 classic seafood eateries. With a little cajoling, Dojny managed to get the owners to reveal their recipes for such Yankee favorites as chowder (clear, red, and white), lobster rolls, fried clams, sweet New England crab, broiled mackerel, and garlicky mussels. Then there are the side dishes: perfect cole slaw and onion rings, pickled beets, and red bliss potato salad. Of course, no book on Yankee cuisine would be complete without a chapter on those famous New England desserts - apple crisp, Indian pudding, wild blueberry pie, whoopie pies, and a whole lot more.

Along the way, Dojny weaves together the history of these restaurants with local lore. She profiles fishermen and cooks. She weighs in on the Great New England Seafood Debates: red chowder vs. white chowder vs. clear chowder; batter-fried clams vs. crumb-fried clams. Scattered throughout the book are sidebars that offer practical advice on how to re-create great New England seafood in your own kitchen: the proper way to clean and shuck clams, the basics of frying fish fillets. THE NEW ENGLAND CLAM SHACK COOKBOOK will make you want to drop what you're doing, grab your car keys, and head for the New England coast.<

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dojny (The New England Cookbook) has created a dependable travel guide for seafood lovers touring the Northeast while simultaneously offering mouthwatering recipes sure to torture those who have no access to fresh seafood or a decent deep fryer. From coastal Connecticut up through Maine, 25 clam shacks, lobster pounds and chowder houses are lovingly mapped, photographed or illustrated, and profiled with their specialty dishes presented for home cooks to take their best shot at. For those who can't make the trip, there are recipes from Two Lights Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where the fresh lobster is drizzled in butter and perked with paprika; there is also Roast Bluefish (served at The Place in Guilford, Conn.), which is caught in the Long Island Sound by the same men who immediately grill it over hickory and oak with just a little lemon and butter. Even a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Tomato gains elite status-served by the Cod End Cookhouse in Maine, done up on bread made of oatmeal and molasses. The book also offers all the tips one would expect on how to eat lobster, shuck oysters, dig clams and fillet a fish. Lessons on regionalism include proper usage of Stuffies (i.e., stuffed clams, or stuffed quahogs, depending on where you are) and a heap of New England Clam Chowder variations, some with salt pork, and a Rhode Island Red Chowder that dares to use tomato. Other fun features include photos of essential local ingredients like Snow's All Natural Clam Juice and Golden Dipt Fry Easy breading.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A "charming cookbook-cum-scrapbook...for inlanders, it's the next best thing to a summer by the sea." -Yankee Magazine

 

“Like writers Jane and Michael Stern…Ms. Dojny provides a guide to the seasonal lobster pounds, chowder houses and clam shacks…of the region.” –The New York Times

 

"If you've ever visited New England, this book offers a nice trip down memory lane. If you've never been to the region, then the recipes will make you drool." -Seattle Post-Intelligencer

 

"There is a richly personal flavor to this collection, well seasoned with quotes, anecdotes, illustrations of individual eating places and their cooking tips." -Associated Press

 

“The New England Clam Shack Cookbook is a 211-page seafood gem.” –News & Observer

 

“…the ultimate taste of the coastline.” –New England Travel & Life

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (May 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580174736
• ISBN-13: 978-1580174732
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brooke Dojny is an award-winning food journalist and cookbook author with a specialty in writing about New England food. Her recent books on the subject are The New England Cookbook (1999), The New England Clam Shack Cookbook (2003, revised 2008), Dishing Up Maine (2006), and New England Home Cooking (2011). Lobster! will be published by Storey Publishing in 2012.

Brooke began her career working as a chef-caterer for Martha Stewart, assisting with recipe development on Martha's first book, Entertaining. In the 1980s, she was hired by the original COOK'S Magazine as a recipe tester and developer, equipment tester, and assistant food stylist. Teaming up with Melanie Barnard, another COOK'S freelancer, the duo launched a syndicated newspaper column and, in 1985, published their first cookbook, Sunday Suppers, which was nominated for an IACP award. Several other titles followed, including Let's Eat In and Parties! (both nominated for James Beard awards), and The AMA Family Cookbook which was a James Beard Award winner in 1998. Brooke was also the winner of the Newman's Own/Good Housekeeping recipe contest in 1998 as an entrant in the food professional category. She has made numerous television and radio appearances around the country.

For many years, Brooke and Melanie co-wrote "Every Night Cooking," a regular monthly column in Bon Appetit Magazine. Brooke's work has appeared in Food & Wine, Saveur, and Cooking Light. She currently writes a weekly column in the Portland Press Herald and is a frequent contributor to Down East Magazine. Brooke lives on the Blue Hill peninsula in Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, June 19, 2003

By 

Martha Welty (Portland, Me USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses (Paperback)

I bought The New England Clam Shack Cookbook for 2 reasons. First, I have several of Brooke Dojny's cookbooks and know the recipes to be easy and reliable. They do work. Second, I live in Maine and my family has a great fondness for clam shacks. Now, during the winter, when the clam shacks are closed, we can have fried clams and chowder at home. The bonus is the wonderful descriptions of the people who cook all of that great food.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wherever You Are....You Too Can Enjoy New England!!!, June 28, 2003

By 

Daniel F. Moore (Yarmouth, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses (Paperback)

One year before I moved to Maine, I was visiting a friend in Yarmouth and we went for seafood at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster. I was hooked! The meal consisted of 2 lobsters, fries and fresh native corn. The place was also packed, itself a tribute to the popularity of the food served there. The fried clams are dipped in batter which the people 'from away' aka tourists, seem to prefer. You can also purchase fresh shellfish for the home clambake or lobster boil.

I am a SCUBA diver and the cove near Two Lights Lobster Shack is a great place at high tide. And no dive could be complete without a lobster roll from the Lobster Shack. In fact, the opening and closing dates for this establishment are announced in the local paper...sure signs of the arrival of spring or fall.

Clam shacks are 'real' seafood restaurants. They aren't fancy but the food is outstanding. Brooke Dojny has captured the essence of this New England cuisine and provides a wonderful insight to this uniquely Yankee culinary tradition. Lest you think that this book is only about seafood, there are chapters about chicken, sides and desserts. After all, what's a seafood dinner without a good cole slaw?

Ms. Dojny also covers in detail the differences and preferences of various regions within New England. For instance, Maine folks prefer chowder made with soft-shell clams and milk(with a little cream for a thicker base) while in Massachusetts, hard-shell clams called quahogs are used along with milk and flour for thickening. Southern New England features clear or red chowders with hard-shell clams and tomatoes. Mainers consider it heresy to serve 'that red stuff' and you won't find it unless you make it yourself.

Chowders aside, the book is easy to read and a wealth of information about New England. Did I say that the recipes are great too? There is even a recipe for Whoopie Pies!! No cook in this region is without a recipe for them and if you haven't tried one, buy the book or stop by Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster for a scrumptious treat!

In short, buy the book! That way you won't have to wait until spring to enjoy this delicious fare.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is exactly what I was looking for, May 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses (Paperback)

Great, fun book for those of us who know and love New England clam shacks. It's fun to read and to look at, brings it all back to you about what fun those places are, and what a vanishing breed, and if you care to make some of the recipes, why they're there as well. Excellent book, in every aspect, and would be a fun gift book or memorabilia from travels to New England. Just love it. Very light-hearted content and lovely visual presentation, but informative as well. Nothing boring here.