By Mary Parks | 1.5 hours

Clams Casino is a classic Rhode Island dish that you’ll find on menus across the East Coast. It consists of quahogs (large hard-shell clams) stuffed and baked with clam meat, breadcrumbs, bacon, peppers, onion, and lemon juice. Some say it was originally created in 1917 at the Little Casino in Narraganset while others claim a similar dish was offered at the Central Park Casino around the turn of the century. Regardless, the hard-shell clam appetizer remains popular over a century later alongside its Portuguese counterpart the stuffie.

Unfortunately like many bivalves, hard-shell clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) are threatened by invasive green crabs. Green crabs are a major predator of hard-shell clams in Southern New England (Walton 2001), impacting farmed and wild populations. 

This recipe is an ode to the hard shell clam, made with quahog-sized large green crabs. We recommend using crabs that are at least 1.5 inches across the carapace for Crabs Casino.

Ingredients 

• 15-20 large hard-shell green crabs

• splash dry white wine

• 5 strips thick-cut bacon 

• splash of olive oil

• 1 bell pepper (orange or red), diced

• 5 garlic cloves, smashed

• 2 shallots, diced 

• 1 tsp fresh oregano (or ½ tsp dried)

• ½ cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped 

• 1 cup breadcrumbs 

• 1 tsp red pepper flakes 

• 4 Tbsp butter

• 1 lemon, juiced and zested

• 1 lemon, sliced

• cracked pepper to taste

• salt to taste

Stock/ Shucking INSTRUCTIONS

1. Thoroughly rinse then boil the crabs in 1 gallon of water for 7-8 minutes until the crabs are completely red. Set aside until cool enough to handle but don’t toss the water. 

2. Remove the carapace (upper shell) from each crab and then the mouthpiece from each carapace. 

3. Using a small spoon or crab pick, scoop the crab fat and meat from the back of the carapace by the crab’s spines/ eyes. Store the crab fat, meat, and carapace shells in the fridge while the stock cooks. 

   Optional: shuck meat from the crab claws and body to go the extra mile using this tutorial 

4. Bring the water back to a boil, add the remaining crab bodies to the water, and boil for 5 minutes before reducing to a simmer. 

5. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove any foam that floats to the surface with a large spoon, and then simmer for an additional 10 minutes until the stock is reduced to a quarter of its original volume. 

Crabs Casino Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425 °F. 

2. Cook three strips of bacon in a cast iron pan until crispy then remove the bacon. 

3. Add a splash of olive oil to the pan then add shallots and peppers, sauteeing for 3 minutes. 

4. Add dried spices, garlic, butter, lemon zest, and breadcrumbs to the pan, until the breadcrumbs are a little crisp.

5. Splash in wine and 1 cup of stock then crumble in bacon and green crab fat and meat.

6. Add ⅔ of your fresh herbs, squeeze in the juice of one lemon, and gently mix to incorporate. Taste your mixture and adjust seasoning to taste. 

7. Cut up your remaining bacon into 1-inch squares.

8. Take a spoon and scoop the breadcrumb mix into each shell so it’s rounded on the top. 

9. Place each stuffed crab shell in a dish and bake for 10 minutes on the middle wrack then broil for 3 minutes, keeping a close eye to make sure the bacon and breadcrumbs don’t burn. 

10. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve hot with lemon slices.