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When cooking clams, keep in mind that the key element is subtlety. You must first find a good supplier for shellfish, whether it be going directly to the ocean, or your favorite grocery store. Make sure the clams are alive before purchasing them. When buying seafood, it should never smell like fish, but rather a sweet or briny ocean scent.

Once you have your choice clams sorted out, cleaning is the next logical step. Run cold water and scrub enough to clean any slime or dirt from the surface, but ignore the inside for now. The next thing to do is fill a bowl with cold water and add about a teaspoon of sea salt per half gallon. Place the clams in the bowl and wait for them to open, allowing any dirt inside to diluted in the water, and for your clams to take in the clean water and expel any dirty fluids. You can also do this with some watered down white wine and salt for a better flavor, and also to sterilize them a bit more if you purchased them from a questionable source.

You will need a stainless steel or cast iron deep saucepan or pot for cooking, i will mention grill directions later. Put a few tablespoons of oil in your pan(anything but canola or corn would be fine) Put the burner on a medium to low heat, just enough to eventually bring your oil to lightly saute some ingredients.

Once your oil is hot enough you can add a little onion or garlic, thyme, or parsley, anything that will add the flavor you want to achieve, but be subtle with it. after lightly sauteing your aromatics for 30 seconds, add about a cup or wine or water, and a pinch of sea salt.

Once this has reached a light simmer, add your clams, and cook lightly, shifting them around the pan only until they open up. The reason for cast iron or stainless steel, is that the shells may scratch up your teflon cookware. Any clams that do not open up reasonably around the time of the rest should be tossed away. They are probably dead and could make you sick.

On a grill, before grilling place your clams in the same water or wine solution and let them absorb the liquid, this is a good time to add your herbs or aromatics to the water. when you remove them from the bowl, make sure they close up and retain the water, but don't expect too much from them.

Bring your grill to glowing embers, and move embers to only one side of the grill, if gas, heat only one side. Cook the clams off of the direct heat only until they open, if it is taking too long, place them on more direct heat. Once they open, you can give them a little splash of oil and wine and some chopped peppers or garlic.

If you keep your approach to clams subtle, you will retain the natural flavors and get a much nicer texture out of your meal.

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