Still, raw clams persisted as a favorite method of consumption.

By 1950, the inlet called Sheepshead Bay was lined with at least 10 clam shacks, many on stilts, serving clams in dozens of recipes from Dutch, French, English, and Italian sources. The city’s love of clams persisted throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It was probably in the 17th century that clam chowder was invented, though some say this soup had a French origin, via Breton immigrants to Canada’s Atlantic seaboard. The Dutch and Indians were later joined by the English, who substituted the clams in recipes that had originally called for mussels and cockles back home. We’re pretty sure the shellfish steamed up sweet and tender.Ī favorite clamming spot for both the Dutch and the Indians was Gowanee Creek - now called the Gowanus Canal. Of course, the Indians ate the clams first, either raw or by digging a pit, lining it with rocks, putting coals on top of the rocks, seaweed on top of the coals, and then throwing clams on top of the seaweed and burying them. The first clam lovers in New York City were Algonquin Indians, who carved the shells into beads for currency called wampum, which the Dutch settlers - who arrived around 1609 - sometimes accepted as payment for goods.