½ pound butter, cut into ½-inch Rock salt
bits and softened 3 dozen small hard-shell clams,
1 T finbely chopped fresh parsley shucked, with the deeper half shell
1 tsp finely chopped garlic of each reserved
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce ¾ c soft fresh crumbs made from home-
½ tsp crumbled dried oregano made-type white bread, pulverized in
½ tsp salt a blender or finely shredded with a
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper fork
----------------------
Cream the butter by beating and mashing it against the sides of a bowl
with the back of a spoon until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the parsley,
garlic, Worcestershire, oregano, salt and pepper. With your hands, pat and
shape the butter mixture into a cylinder 9 to 10 inches long and 1 inch in
diameter. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate the cylinder for at least 2
hours, or until it is firm.Preheat the broiler to its highest setting. Spread the rock salt to a depth of about ½ inch in 6 individual shallow baking pans--each large enough to hold half a dozen clams comfortably. (Or spread a ½-inch layer of salt in the bottom of one or two shallow baking-serving dishes large enough to hold all the clams.) Arrange the pans on one or two large baking sheets and set them in the oven to heat the salt while you prepare the clams.
Scrub the reserved clam shells thoroughly under cold running water, then pat them dry and place a clam in each shell. With a small, sharp knife, cut the cylinder of butter into ¼-inch-thick slices. Sprinkle each clam with 1 tsp of the brerad crumbs and set a slice of seasoned butter on top. Then arrange the clams in one layer in the salt-lined pans.
Broil the clams about 4 inches from the heat for 3 minutes, or until the crumb topping is brown. Serve at once, directly from the baking dishes. Serves 6.
NOTE: The bed of salt is not indispensable to the success of this dish, but it will help keep the shells from tipping and, if heated beforehand, will keep the clams hot. You may, if you like, bake the clams in any shallow pan or pans large enough to hold the shells snugly in one layer, and serve them from a heated platter.
