Our Pacific Northwest Shellfish book (yes, we have a book on shellfish) saids that razor clam is the best tasting clams out there. And I cannot disagree. We have gotten horse clams, manila clams and butter clams last year. They are all great but they cannot compare to the sweet and meaty razor clam. And they are pretty easy catch, too.

Photographer: Betsy Fryday

Each of us could get 15 a day, so we each got 15 on Saturday and another 15 on Sunday. The clam gun has proven itself to be very useful. (They were not very useful at all for horse clams or other smaller clams.) It is very easy to spot a hole and to get them out, but the trick is not to break them during the process. There were more casualties the first day but we got better at it the second day.

Photographer: Betsy Fryday

Cleaning them was a hassle without running water, but we established a pretty good line of cleaners: one pop them in to boiling water for a few second and throw them into cold water, others removed them from the shell and clean them up. We wasted some meat because we didn’t know what to do with the white stuff in the middle, but won’t make that mistake again.

Menu:

Stir fried razor clam with basil, chili and garlic
Stir fried razor clam with red pepper and celery in garlic chili sauce
Creamy razor clam pasta with diced onion and parsley

Storage:

Matt put some away in the freezer with half water half milk. They are sitting the freezer waiting for Ken and Judith!