Comments on: White clam sauce for linguini

By: ellaella

ellaella — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:31:33 +0000

Oh, {{{tess}}}, first – I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. You have my sympathy — and empathy. My mother died a few years ago and I still miss her terribly. Maybe some day you’ll run across the papers or remember, suddenly and out of nowhere, where you put them.

Peg Bracken has a lot to answer for. It seems as if I’ve always been aware of “I Hate to Cook” (who isn’t?) but until I read a book about 20th century food/cooking I never was aware of its influence, coupled with the advent of frozen and convenience foods, on what I call our faux food culture. I was in a used book store a few weeks ago and saw at least a dozen of them, all well-worn.

When I think of food and the UP I think of one thing – fabulous taffy from Mackinac Island, and I’m not even sure that qualifies as UP. (I am woefully midwest-challenged, desipte having had a housemate from Michigan who brought me the taffy one summer.) I understand the dusty clams, though. I associate fresh water fish with Michigan. Minnesota etc and we’re very much ocean seafood people in the east. I suppose it’s all a holdover from ancestors who ate what was available and sustainable locally — gee, what a good idea!

Here’s another {{{{hug}}}}.

By: tess

tess — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:07:47 +0000

It's great you keep that card. My husband sometimes makes a clam sauce like that—probably learned it from his mother. (gone for 11 years) White clam sauce, however, was exotic for my mother. I remember finding a recipe similar to yours by Peg Bracken in a woman's magazine (Woman's Day?) for a white clam sauce with spaghetti, and I really, really wanted to make it. But we lived in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and even canned clams were difficult to find. In the Keweenaw, most folk kept to the very basics—but there was a dusty can of clams in the local grocery store. My mother was not impressed. It could be that my 12 year old self with no cooking skills… Or perhaps the "best used by" date was past? At any rate, since she died a year ago, I've looked for some of the recipes she wrote out by hand for me when I was first married. I think that in a rare clearing up frenzy I tossed most of those old papers. I guess I just thought she'd always be there… tess’s last blog post..Mochi + Waffles = Moffles

By: ellaella

ellaella — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:36:05 +0000

I’d never get rid of that card, Nate. She was an absolute doll. I really miss her. Call me a sentimental fool, but I think a wonderful thing about recipes is that they help people to live on with us.

You know I’ve never found a red clam sauce recipe I really like. Do you have one? (fingers crossed)

PS – Welcome to the Blogroll.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:39:03 +0000

Talk about an old-school recipe card! That's just fantastic. I'm glad you kept it. It has been forever since I've had pasta with clam sauce. I prefer red, but Annie has been swinging me around to cream sauces. Nate’s last blog post..Malaysian Honeycomb Cake Recipe