Clams Casino

Clams casino

Clams casino over rock salt with lemon and parsley garnish
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Rhode Island
Main ingredients	clam, breadcrumbs and bacon

Clams casino is a clam "on the halfshell" dish with breadcrumbs and bacon. It originated in Rhode Island in the United States. It is often served as an appetizer in New England and is served in variations nationally.

The dish uses littlenecks or cherrystone clams. Other basic ingredients include butter, peppers, bacon and garlic.Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, white wine, lemon juice, and shallots or onion are also used.Tabasco sauce is sometimes added, and parsley is sometimes used as a garnish.

The clams, bacon, and other ingredients are cooked in various ways depending on the recipe, and then added with breading to half the clam shell and baked or broiled (grilled from above) to a golden brown.

There are many variations on the dish, but the constant factor is the bacon: "Bacon remains the major key to its success", with some chefs recommending smoked bacon for its salty flavor and others advocating an unsmoked variety.

According to legend, the recipe for clams casino was originally developed in 1917 in the Little Casino in Narragansett, Rhode Island, by a maître d'hôtel for a woman of means wanting something special for her guests.Good Housekeeping Great American Classics attributes the dish to Mrs. Paran Stevens and maître d'hôtel Julius Keller. She named the dish after the hotel, and word and popularity of the dish has since spread across the United States, including New Orleans, where oysters are substituted for clams. Clams casino remains a very popular dish in Rhode Island, "appearing on almost every menu".