page_title: Hard clam
section_title: Human use
hierarchical_section_title: Hard clam / Human use
caption_attribution_description: English: Top neck clams in New Jersey. Português: Clames-redondas (Mercenaria mercenaria) cruas, na Nova Jérsia, nos EUA. Suomi: Kauppavenussimpukoita tarjolla newjerseyläisessä ravintolassa.
context_page_description: The hard clam, also known as a quahog, round clam or hard-shell clam, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams, as in the expression "clam digging". Older literature sources may use the systematic name Venus mercenaria; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams.
  Confusingly, the "ocean quahog" is a different species, Arctica islandica, which, although superficially similar in shape, is in a different family of bivalves: it is rounder than the hard clam, usually has black periostracum, and there is no pallial sinus in the interior of the shell.
context_section_description: In coastal areas of New England, New York, and New Jersey, restaurants known as raw bars or clam bars specialize in serving littlenecks and topnecks raw on an opened half-shell, usually with a cocktail sauce with horseradish, and often with lemon. Sometimes littlenecks are steamed and dipped in butter, though not as commonly as their soft-shelled clam cousin the "steamer". Littlenecks are often found in-the-shell in sauces, soups, stews, and clams casino, or substituted for European varieties such as the cockle in southern European seafood dishes. The largest clams are quahogs or chowders and cherrystones; they have the toughest meat and are used in such dishes as clam chowder, clam cakes, and stuffed clams, or are minced and mixed into dishes that use the smaller, more tender clams.
  Historically, American Indians used the quahog as a component in wampum, the shell beads exchanged in the North American fur trade. The Narragansetts used the hard clam for food and ornaments.
  A population of hard clams exists in Southampton Water in Hampshire, England. Originally bred in the warm water outflows at Southampton Power Station for use as eel bait, the population became self-sustaining and can now be found in Southampton Water and has also spread to Portsmouth Harbour and Langstone Harbour.
caption: Raw top neck clams in New Jersey.
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