Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-28
THE SUCCULENT CLAM.
A Scientific Essay Dealing With Its
Many Different Virtues.
THE JUICE OF 1T is VERY HEALTHY
And Has on Many Occasions Proved Veri-
table Elixir of Life.
GREATLY RELIsHED BY THE INDIANS.

human race that good many OF US appear
to live mainly to eat, yet comparatively
few seem to realize that eating is anything
more than qualification of taste and nutri
tive replacement of wasted tissue. But II
may be much more to the intelligent eater,
the one who comprehends that health o,
disease, happiness or misery, perhaps we
NAV even say good morals or bad, are
almost wholly matters dependent upon
proper or improper alimentation. A
right thinking medico-legal writer has
affirmed that no confirmed dyspeptic il
thoroughly sane or should be deemed
morally responsible for acts of violence
perpetrated when his malady is gnawing at
his vitals. But, without going to such an
extreme, it must be apparent to everyone
that impaired digestive functions play the
mischief with our physical, domestic,
social, and even our business well-being,
affect our mentality and shorten our exist
ences, says the ADser.can Anayst.
bad Results of Improper Eating.
And what causes such impairment? I'm.
proper eating. We get into the habit OF
eating whatever comes handiest," or"what
we are used to-" or we cultivate depraved
appetites for rich and outrageously seasoned
food, and naturally we suffer the conse-
ouences. Do we reform the evil conditions
we have established by reforming our hab-
its, giving to our stomachs, with thoughtful
care, the aliment our systems demand, in
accordance with their ever changing re-
quirements? Few of us do. Generally we
take some pills, ''give the liver shake-up, 4"
and go right along in the old ways. Yet
kindly nature offers to us, in the infinite
variety of food with which fields, forests
and waters abound-particularly in this
favored country-not only the ailments to
nourish those who are we'll and keep them
so. but to restore health to those who are
sick, If they only know how to avail them
selves of the means thus proffered. And of
all natures choicest medicines presented
temptingly under the guise of delicious
food, none is superior to the common clam,
or quahaug, which is found in abundance all
along our Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to
Florida
Why the scientists should have bestowed
upon this succulent bivalve the scandalous
name of Venus mercenaria may be left to
query and imagination; the Indian appeIla-
tion 'quahaug" is certainly preferable for
common use. But no matter what it may
be called, it deserves to be held dear in re-
membrance as first and best of the nu merous
family to which it belongs as one of human
ity's best boons
Prejudices Regarding the Clam
An unfounded prejudice against the clam
exists in the minds of many persons who be-
lieve that it is tough and indigestible And
feeble-minded, would-be witlings have fos-
tered that error by their alleged jokes about
''the leatherny clam" and the "indestruct-
ible baked clam" But in fact the clam is
only tough and india-rubbery when man has
ignorantly maltreate6 him to make him so.
Providence never intended that the quahaug
should be cooked, any more than the straw
berry. Both are finished products, master
pieces in their respective Kingdoms, as they
come fresh from the hand of nature, and it
is simple brutality to put either near a fire.
The sand clam, Mya arenaria, is an al
together different mollusk and should be
cooked. Probably the incest way to pre-
pare him is to stuff him, through his siphon,
with finely minced and highly seasoned salt
pork; after folding back the siphon inside,
wire the shells tightly together and bake
the clam in an oven. There are various
ways of making the sand clam palatable,
but that is the best, and an experience of its
results will fasten joy in the remembrance
of an ep1cure- The surprising 'tgeoduck,"
or giant clam of the North Pacific coast, be-
longs to the sand clam family (the Myi'iae),
but is altogether too fearfully enormous to
be contemplated from a culinary point of
view. The recipe already recommended
would probably be failure If applied in
the treatment Of a mollusk having q siphon
30 inches long and with capacity for half
bushel, more or less, Of minced salt pork;
and that Is the sort Of clam the "geoduck"
iG
CLANS In the Southern Seas
Another monstrous clam found in the
China sea and the South Pacific and Indian
oceans belongs to q third family, the
and more resembles in per-
sonal appearance our beloved quahaug,
though of course upon q stupendously mag
nifed scale, since his shells are often up
ward of two feet in length and specimens
have been found weighing, individually, as
much as 800 pounds Whether anybody
attempts eating him or Iot, we have no
present means of knowing. There would
seem TO be serious difficulties in consuming
him as one should the quahaug, or round
clam, viz, by swallowing him whole; and
the bodies: chef de cuisine or gastronomer
might we'll be dazed by the idea of worthily
and satisfactorily cooking such a gigantic
mollusk. IF the French philosopher was
right III figuring that humanity in the
Adamic age attained an average height of
about 12O feet, then perhaps there was
lime when Tridacna was admirably suited
to his surroundings, and possibly Noah,
ate as he came along in the worlds chron-
'logy, was still man enough to enjoy as
morning appetizer-when the brown taste
vas in his mouth after a nights tussling
With the juice of the vine-a half-dozen or
70 full grown clans of that sort, fresh off |
he ice.
Well Liked by the Indians.
But 10 these degenerate days we find
sufficient reason to be amply satisfied with |
he dimensions of our ordinary round clam
md to take delight in its quality, notwith-
standing its ominously suggestive scientific |
,ame OF Venus mercenaria. The family to |
which it belongs-the Veneridae-embraces |
'ver 200 species, scattered almost everv- |
where that salt water is found, over the sur |
ace OF the globe, and few of them are not at |
east good, but the one whose praises we
xalt our own beloved quahaug, is best of |
Ill The red man, long before the white
brought him rum and redemption, knew the
'irtues of the round clam and his apprecia-
ion of them was so high that he not only |
easted upon its juicy flesh, but made his
money (wampum) of its shells There is
omething fascinating, by the way, in the
dea OF ordering at restaurant bar "a peck
# raw clans" and paying for them with
heir own shells Of course, the aboriginal
ustom varied slightly from that. but the