On Tuesday night in Astoria, the seafood case at United Brothers Fruit Market displayed lobster tails marked at $42 per pound. At several Manhattan counters, lobster rolls have reached $30 and above this summer. For many New Yorkers, this has put a signature summer sandwich out of reach.
Some home cooks are turning instead to the stuffed quahog, a dish known along the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coast as a 'stuffie.' The preparation is straightforward: chopped clams combined with breadcrumbs, herbs, and sometimes sausage or peppers, packed into a half-shell and baked. Ingredients can be found at most supermarkets, and the dish does not require specialist equipment.
Quahogs themselves are not widely available at city fish markets, but mid-sized cherrystone clams from Long Island or New Jersey serve the same purpose. At Fish Tales in Cobble Hill on Monday, cherrystones were selling for $8 per dozen. Cooks say that two or three clams yield enough meat for four generous stuffies.
In Queens and on Staten Island, some families have kept the recipe alive as a summer weekend tradition. On Sunday, smoke from backyard grills mixed with the scent of stuffed clams in Tompkinsville, where the dish is often paired with cold beer and corn on the cob.
As prices for classic summer seafood continue to climb, the stuffed quahog offers a familiar taste of the Northeast shore, assembled at home for a fraction of the cost.