The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-06

ed. Five or six men are employed
constantly at this work at the larger
resorts. The preparation of the pile
on which the CLAIMS are to bake is the
next step, and this is done on much
the same plan everywhere; pile of
wood is laid. on every layer of which
cobblestones are placed, and The burn
ing of the wood heats the stones and
makes them ready to have the CLAIMS
thrown on top. At Rocky point,
instead of building the pile on the
ground it is laid on surface of stone
cemented with Gre-clay, and some
such plan has been adopted in other
places This allows of the stones be-
ing pulled off after the wood is con-
sumed and the plate swept clear of
ashes, when the stones are piled on it
again. Over the hot stones a mass of
rockweed is piled, and the sight of
line of walters with tubs of clans be-
tween them running at breakneck
speed for the pile, forming circle
about it, and empty1ng the tubs on
top with a concerted effort, IS familiar.
Over the whole the canvas is laid, sea-
weed is heaped, and fragrant steam
arises from the pile. Twenty minutes
later the clans are ready for the table.
The Rhode Island clam is, alas,
going out of use for chowder. 1t has
too much grit IN its belly, and when it is
cutup it makes a chowder not agreeable
to look at and so about two-thirds of the
chowder CLANS are quahaugs-so to
express it. Old-fashioned people say
they like the longneck CLANS better,
but the quahaugs are white and clean
and palatable thus prepared, and of
late years have come into general use.
If the visitor to Rocky point should
chance to stroll down toward the
beach behind the laundry-honse he
would discover near the water an old
shed. Against the side facing him is
huge pile of quahaug shells, and
through a slit that runs the whole
length of the shed quahaug shells are
flying out in way at once mysterious
and startling. But behind the opening
is a bench, and at the bench are three
or four men opening quahaugs for
chowder. 'Ecut-outs" they call them,
and few OF the largest CLANS are also
cut out for the same purpose. The
quahaug come from Edgartown, and
a schooner brings two hundred or three
hundred bushels of them every fort
nighG, which are emptied in shed
where the water constantly flows over
them. QuahaugS grows close to
the surface of the mud and are raked
out the same as oysters, or may be
''trod out" at low water. Three hun
dred gallons Of chowder make an aver
age course for good-sized excursion
party. Patent clam choppers chew
longnecks and littlenecks into tidbits
in no time to put into caidron.
AS for fish, that is cut up and pack
ed on CRATES by the half ton in two.
ovens. Clam cakes swim about and
fry in a small pond of melted lard on
top of a big oven, and two hundred
pounds of liquid lard bubbling and
sizzling float the hundreds of cakes;
one man drops in the dough from a
huge tin dlshful, and a second is en-
ployed in turning them and taking
them out. Five barrels of flour per
week represents the average consump-
ton of clam cakes at well-patronized
resort. For the other details of the
feast. melons and potatoes are bought
by the hundreds and cart-loads; bread
is baked by the hundred loaves in the
proportion of 500 white to 25O brown
Ioaves; butter is laid in store by the
half ton; and between twenty and
thirty walters are required to serve it
all up in the large dining hall.
The shells are about the only things
left after a well-organized excursion
party has attacked clam-bake. These
are carted off and dumped on some
stretch of waste land. The accumu-
lated shells of a seas on of some eighty
days is considerable. They lie in the
sun until the following spring. Then
they are spread over the road, and
prime roads they do make. The qua
haug shells make the best, and are
spread about the cottagers' highways
and in the more .'select' localit es.