Cape Cod 2007

What an incredible adventure! We had so much fun at Cape Cod this weekend!

Let me first give you a little background on where we were and to the best of my ability the history of the Cape house.

The Cape House is located the the upper cape area of Cape Cod. If you look at the map the house is located just south of the Pocasset. It sits on Handy Point in the Red Brook Harbor. The house was build in 1928 by the Allen Family. How are they related to the Jernigan's you ask? Good question! Here is what I can gather. The house was build by Talbott Allen. Talbot's sister is Jean Jernigan, Dan's paternal grandmother. Talbott passed away last year and his son Langdon and his family are the caretaker's of the property. SO Langdon is Dan's dad's cousin. So there are lots of cousins involved, so many in fact, I cannot keep straight the relationships. So I think I have the lineage right, but please correct me if I am wrong.

The house is located on a large plot of land that faces Red Brook Harbor. There is a large grass area the leads into a sandy beach then right into the harbor. What a beautiful setting.

The house is still in it original 1928 splendor, so with age comes some quirks. The most noticeable is the bathroom flushing habit one must adopt when staying at the cape house. The house has a very small and very old septic system which must be treated with tender love and care. This tenderness includes not over loading the system which translates into not flushing as often. So the saying goes "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down." When staying at the cape house one must also become accustom to showering in the great outdoors and learn to do so with Daddy Long-leg spiders looking on. This makes for a refreshing and QUICK shower. But all the quirks are worth the relaxation and great memories made with family.

The whole weekend is centered on The Bake. The preparations begin several days before and end in LOTS of food! I will take you through the steps of a traditional Calm Bake.

Step One:

Dig a HUGE hole in the beach and line it with rocks

Step Two:

The night before the bake collect garbage bags full of kelp. Dan's Uncle Bruce was the Kelp Master and I do have to say he did a mighty fine job determining exactly how much kelp was needed for the bake. Way to go Bruce! Don't think this sounds like a hard job? It is! Uncle Bruce had to determine exactly how mush kelp would be needed because if it came time to lay the bake and there was not enough kelp the whole bake is ruined! So hats off to Uncle Bruce and his minions who collected the kelp.

Step Three:

The morning of the Bake, light a HUGE, HOT fire. Langdon is the Bake Master and is in charge of the fire and the rest of the actual bake. He piled on wood, charcoal, kindling, and LOTS of lighter fluid into the rock lined pit and lit it up! The fire is kept going for several hours as it heats the rocks in preparation for the bake.

Step Four:

The corn must be gathered and set adrift in the water. Brady was the one deemed responsible for the corn. He carefully tied up the burlap bags of corn and drug them out into the water and assured the anchor was secure. Securing the anchor is an important step, one that was forgotten one year and the corn was found floating several hundred feet off shore in the middle of the harbor. Good Job Brady!!

Step Five:

The steamers must now be prepared. They are wrapped in a gauze like material and tied in bundles to be put in the bake. Great Job Dan!

Step Six:

When the fire has reached the peak temperature as determined by the Bake Master and the appropriate gear has been gathered (kelp, lobsters, corn, clams, canvas, & tarps), the bake is ready to be laid.

FIRST LAYER - Kelp - the kelp immediately begins to pop ans sizzle when it is thrown into the hot rocks. The water pockets of the kelp are what heat up to create the steam that steams the lobsters, corn, & steamers.

SECOND LAYER - Lobsters - 65 Lobsters were thrown on the bake. Having never cooked a Lobster before I was a little taken aback when they were STILL MOVING!!!

THIRD LAYER - Kelp - More kelp is thrown down covering the STILL MOVING lobsters.

FOURTH LAYER - Corn & Steamers- The sea water soaked corn is piled onto the bake along with the bundles of steamers

FIFTH LAYER - Kelp - The pile is completely covered with kelp.

SIXTH LAYER - Canvas & Tarp - The whole pile is the sealed with a canvas and a tarp.

Step Seven:

After the appropriate cooking time as passed, again the cook time is determined by the bake master, the layers of kelp are scraped away and the corn, steamers, & lobster are removed. I believe the Bake Master determined an hour and a half was a sufficient cook time for this particular bake. When the lobsters are removed they were passed to the cutters (Dan and his brother Michael) to be sliced from chest to tail then plated for all guest to enjoy.

So there you have it the ingredients to a Cape Cod Clam Bake. We truly enjoyed our time in Cape Cod and look forward to going back. Enjoy the pictures! There will more pictures I am sure once I get the ones from other family. There are some pictures of Jackson with a lobster Marilyn got that she said were adorable. So look for more to follow.