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Them Ain’t Clams

“Them ain’t clams, them’s quahaugs,” is the classic Cape Cod remark to visitors who admire the shellfish which to the south of us is usually called the hard-shelled clam.

To distinguish it from what we call the clam, which is the soft-shelled clam. The quahaug is the shellfish from which the Indians made black wampum, and its scientific name Venus mercenaria reflects, it is supposed, its use as cash.

You may be interested in knowing that, as our quahaug monograph states, “The quahaug like the soft clam (Mya) and the sea clam (Mactra) is placed in the sub-class of the Eulamellibranchia, one of the four great orders of the Lamellibranchia…”. Some people think quahaugs make better clam chowder than clams. They like warm water better than clams and Cape Cod marks about the northern limit of the coast where quahaugs grow well.

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