If clam stock has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 1 recipe to try it in.

What is clam stock?

Clam stock is the briny liquid drawn from clams, and for home cooking it is essentially the same thing as clam broth. You steam clams, strain off their salty liquor, and you have it.

Some cooks call the strained steaming liquid stock and the bottled, ready-to-pour version broth, but the line is blurry and the two are used interchangeably.

Whatever you call it, the flavor is clean and oceanic, salty with a faint mineral sweetness.

Because clams season the liquid themselves, this is one of the easiest seafood stocks to make. It still follows the seafood rule: a short simmer of about 20 minutes, since long cooking turns it bitter and dull.

Using and Storing Clam Stock

Everything you need lives on the clam broth page: the chowders and pasta sauces it carries, the substitutes like fish stock and bottled clam juice, and the buying and storing details.

The one thing worth repeating is the salt. Clam stock is already salty, so season last and taste before adding any more.

Store it like any seafood liquid. It keeps 2 to 3 days in the fridge and about 3 months frozen, and freezing it in cubes gives you small briny hits for quick soups and pan sauces.

Quick facts

In Chinese

蛤股票

British (UK) term

Clam stock

en français

palourdes stocks

en español

almeja Stock

Recipes using clam stock

There are 1 recipe that contain this ingredient.

All 1 recipes