Name: Indoor Clambake
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 pounds medium new potatoes, red or white; 4 ears corn, husked; 2 pounds soft-shelled steamer clams, scrubbed; 1 1/2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and beards removed; 1 pound Spanish-style chorizo or linguiça, cut crosswise into 4 pieces (andouille or smoked kielbasa sausage can be substituted); 4 (1 to 1 1/4 pound) live lobsters; 5 large eggs; 4 large mesh bags (such as onions or citrus fruit come in) or 4 pouches made from several wide layers cheesecloth; Kitchen twine; Large pot (5 or more gallons) with tightly-fitting lid; Rockweed (see Chef's Notes, below) or steamer rack; 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted; Old Bay seasoning; 4 lemon wedges

This recipe adapts a classic outdoor clambake for the stovetop. The ingredients are steamed together in mesh bags that fit easily into a large lobster pot. Although the beauty and drama of unveiling an outdoor clambake cannot be duplicated, this method produces a mingling of flavors that's nearly indistinguishable from the original. "At my Summer Shack restaurants, we literally sell thousands of these indoor clambakes each week," says White.

Clambakes vary up and down the New England coast. In Maine you might find chicken and hotdogs, on Cape Cod a whole fish, in other places crabs. One famous clambake held for over 100 years by the "Friends" from Allen's Neck in Westport, MA, features tripe that's braised and wrapped in little foil packages. "In this recipe," says White, "I add Portuguese sausage, which is common around the 'South Coast' area of Massachusetts and Rhode Island."

Chef's Notes:

• For an outdoor clambake, the food is layered from the longest cooking time (on the bottom) to the shortest. In the indoor version, all ingredients must cook in the same time, so the potatoes are boiled in advance. • Rockweed is a seaweed that grows along the shores of the North Atlantic. In traditional clambakes, it's layered over and under the ingredients — its seawater-filled pockets burst during cooking, adding moisture and the flavor of the sea. In this version, White uses rockweed to line the pot. If you live near New England, ask your fishmonger to sell you some — it's used to pack shellfish, and so is often abundant at seafood markets. If rockweed is unavailable, feel free to use a regular steamer rack instead. • "Choose lobsters that weigh 1 to 1 1/4 pounds each," says White. Larger lobsters require extra cooking time, which causes the steamers and mussels to overcook. • "The egg in this recipe is a nod to my old friend and bake-master Johnny Stevens, from Boothbay Harbor, Maine," says White. "He taught me to hide an egg in the clambake and crack it open before unveiling the entire bake — if the egg is cooked through, the lobsters will be as well."

Recipe notes