Quahog

The hard clam, also known as the round clam, hard-shell clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are.

The quahog, or hard clam, is sold by size: small littlenecks and cherrystones are eaten raw on the half shell, while larger chowder clams go into clam chowder and sauces. It's a staple of New England cooking.

The hard clam is a burrowing bivalve native to the western Atlantic, ranging from Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence down to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. It lives in sand and mud in estuaries, bays, and protected nearshore waters, and is both wild-harvested and farmed.