Recipe

Indoor Clambake

serves
prep time: 10
cook time: 166

ingredients

2 pounds medium new potatoes, red or white
4 ears corn, husked
2 pounds soft-shelled steamer clams, scrubbed
1 1/2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and beards removed
1 pound Spanish-style chorizo or linguiç,a, cut crosswise into 4 pieces (andouille or smoked kielbasa sausage can be substituted)
4 (1 pound) live lobsters
5 large eggs
Cooking
4 large mesh bags (such as onions or citrus fruit come in) or 4 pouches made from several wide layers cheesecloth
Kitchen twine
Large pot (5 or more gallons) with tightly-fitting lid
Rockweed (see Chef's Notes, below) or steamer rack
Serving
Old Bay seasoning
4 lemon wedges

directions

Place potatoes in large saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook just until tender, 18 minutes. Drain well. Cool completely, then cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Into each bag or cheesecloth pouch, put: 2 potatoes, l ear corn, 1/4 of steamers, 1/4 of mussels, 1 piece sausage, 1 lobster, and 1 egg. Gather bags or pouches together and tie closed with kitchen twine.

Fill 5 gallons pot with 1 inch of water and add 1 tablespoon salt. Add steamer rack or enough rockweed to keep clambakes elevated. Cover and bring to rolling boil.

Gently layer bags in pot. Nestle extra egg in a central position where it's easily retrievable. Cover tightly and steam 15 minutes, maintaining water at full rolling boil. Uncover pot, set aside extra egg, and gently rearrange bags from top to bottom to promote even cooking. Replace egg and re-cover pot.

Steam additional 5 minutes, then retrieve extra egg and crack open. If it's hard-cooked, clambakes are done. If egg is not yet cooked, steam bags an additional 8 minutes. (If you're unsure, untie 1 bag and test with another egg). When done, lobsters will be completely red. Transfer each bag to large plate and serve immediately.

To serve, divide melted butter among 4 small cups and season to taste with salt. Ladle some broth from pot into 4 small bowls. Cut open bags. Discard any steamers or mussels that have not opened and loosely arrange food on plates. Sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning. Place 1 cup of butter, 1 dish of broth, and 1 lemon wedge on each plate. Have bowls for shells and plenty of napkins at the ready.

Chef's Notes:

For an outdoor clambake, the food is layered from the longest cooking time (on the bottom) to the shortest. In the indoor version, all ingredients must cook in the same time, so the potatoes are boiled in advance.

Rockweed is a seaweed that grows along the shores of the North Atlantic. In traditional clambakes, it's layered over and under the ingredients —, its seawater-filled pockets burst during cooking, adding moisture and the flavor of the sea. In this version, White uses rockweed to line the pot. If you live near New England, ask your fishmonger to sell you some —, it's used to pack shellfish, and so is often abundant at seafood markets. If rockweed is unavailable, feel free to use a regular steamer rack instead.

'Choose lobsters that weigh 1 pound each,' says White. Larger lobsters require extra cooking time, which causes the steamers and mussels to overcook.

'The egg in this recipe is a nod to my old friend and bake-master Johnny Stevens, from Boothbay Harbor, Maine,' says White. 'He taught me to hide an egg in the clambake and crack it open before unveiling the entire bake —, if the egg is cooked through, the lobsters will be as well.'