The Saturday Sip: June 10, 2023
Your etiquette tip, quote and an Emily Post Cookbook recipe to start your weekend off right!
The Tip
When choosing dishes for a multi-course meal, balance the menu. Think about the textures (crunchy, soft, grainy, smooth…) richness, and weight of a dish - is it heavy like a thick stew, or maybe red meat served with whipped potatoes and creamed spinach? Or is it light, like a spring salad, or a fish fillet with lightly steamed vegetables? Choose items that will pair nicely together and allow balance.
The Recipe
Clamming on Martha’s Vineyard is a Post family tradition. It is immensely satisfying to find a clam buried beneath the sand with your toe or the tip of your clamming rake and work it out of its little spot to see that it is just the perfect size to take home and gobble up. Emily has two clam hash recipes in her book, so we think she quite liked the dish in its various forms. This is her more involved version.
Emily Post’s Cookbook, 1951, pg. 35
Hashed Creamed Clams
Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
4 doz. medium-sized cherry stone clams
4 tbs. butter
4 tbs. flour
1 cup light cream
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
a few drops of Tabasco sauce
4 pieces of toast
Directions
This is a wonderful dish for breakfast, lunch, or supper.
Drain clams and keep the juice separate. Chop clams in a meat chopper, using the medium blade. Put chopped clams in a saucepan, and, stirring constantly, cook over medium flame for 5 minutes at simmer temperature. Drain again and add this juice to the other. Make a cream sauce in a double boiler with the butter, flour, cream, and 1 cup of clam juice. Add the clams, Worcestershire, and Tabasco and stir until all is hot. Serve on pieces of toast. If hash is too thick, add a little more of the juice while stirring. Do not add salt or pepper without tasting first and deciding if either is necessary.
The Quote
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Whether you’re reading this first thing in the morning, as an afternoon break, or as you settle in for the night, thank you for spending a bit of your day with us. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Sip! Do you love hash recipes? We’ve seen some great ones over the years corned beef is a favorite of Dan’s and Lizzie once had a roommate make a root vegetable hash that was delicious! Let us know in the comments if you’ve got a recipe you love!
Up next is Monday’s Awesome Etiquette podcast. Don’t forget the Monday comment thread is open to all so if you can’t post here, posting there is a great option!
Until then,
Lizzie and Dan
From Emily’s biography, Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge, a photo of Emily and her son Ned with the very cookbook we pull our Saturday Sip recipes from.
Thank you for this lovely interlude! I love the quote from Emily. Her skill at bringing people together in harmony was genius! Thank you both for carrying on the work of inspiring connections. I hope Dan got to dig clams with his family! I’m curious about what your roommate put in the root veggie hash? It sounds tasty.
Feeling warm and fuzzy,
Debbie
Long time subscriber ❤️
The quote and the photo were wonderful, especially knowing you still have that same cookbook!