The Clambake. It’s an ultimate Frisbee tournament, it’s an Elvis movie, it’s a New England institution.

As a native Mainer, born and raised on the Damariscotta River, I grew up with traditional clambakes — the fire, the seaweed, the lobsters and clams cooked to perfection. For more than 30 years now, my family’s annual reunion has centered around a clambake thanks in large part to my father who, back in the late ‘70s, fashioned his own cooker by propping half of an old 275-gallon oil drum up on cinder blocks in the backyard. When it’s time for the ‘bake, he layers all the food inside with huge mounds of seaweed, covers it up with a blue tarpaulin, and lights a wood fire underneath.

The process, which is labor intensive on the front end, gets pretty easy at that point. Aside from occasionally adding water to the drum to make sure the bottom layer of seaweed stays moist, there’s not much to do during the two-hour cooking process except melt the butter, which is one of the reasons — aside from the tasty grub — that clambakes are so popular. After the prep work, the food practically cooks itself, which leaves everyone involved plenty of time to socialize, indulge in snacks and have a cocktail or two.

Anyone who’s ever attended a clambake can tell you that a true ‘bake is much more than a seafood dinner — it’s an experience from beginning to end, which is why it’s highly worth the effort to try pulling one off on your own at least once.

There are several approaches to the DIY clambake, the most romantic and idealistic of which is the dig-a-pit-in-the-sand technique. Unfortunately, this method is also the most difficult, not only because of the labor required — digging the pit, gathering rocks with which to line it and rockweed for the steaming — but also in terms of finding an appropriate location. State parks and municipal beaches don’t typically allow folks to cook on the shore, so private property — which is hard to come by — is your best bet. If you can get past that obstacle though, you’re in business, and by following the steps outlined below, you should be able to pull off a beach clambake that will make you the envy of all your friends.

7 Steps to a Traditional Lobsterbake

1. Dig a circular pit about three feet in diameter and two feet deep on the beach above the high tide line.

2. Line the bottom of the pit with grapefruit sized rocks. (These two steps alone will probably take about an hour if you factor in time to gather the stones.)

3. Build a wood fire over the stones and keep it burning for about two hours to heat the rocks, then let it burn down to embers (another 90 minutes).

4. Shovel out the embers (it’s good to bring a steel bucket to contain them) and cover the rocks with about four inches of rockweed (a type of seaweed typically found on rocks, usually brown with many blistery pods).

5. Layer your food, interspersed with more bits of rockweed, in this order: potatoes (wrapped in foil), clams, lobsters and unhusked corn.

6. Throw another two to three inches of rockweed on top and cover the entire pit with a wetted down canvas anchored with rocks or sand.

7. Eat, drink, socialize and melt your butter while the food steams (a little over an hour), then unearth it all, pass out the napkins and enjoy.

For those of us without private beach access, there’s no need to worry — a traditional clambake is still within reach. If you’re not attached to the whole beach idea, you can dig a pit right in your own backyard, or create a cooker the way my father did, with cinder blocks and an old oil drum. The seashore will still come into your process as you’ll need to gather rockweed, and you can follow the process above minus the pit. (Just make sure that if you’re cooking over a fire instead of using the heat of rocks to steam your food that you occasionally add water to your cooker to keep the bottom layer of rockweed moist and prevent burning.)

If the beach is an essential element, you can still pull off a ‘bake using more conventional cooking methods. Many public beaches have ready-made grills where, if you bring your own coals, you can cook your potatoes and corn in foil and use a dutch oven filled with seawater to boil or steam the seafood.

However you choose to do it, there’s something special about preparing a meal outside — particularly a clambake at the beach. Not only does cooking outdoors provide a greater connection to nature, but the manual labor involved in the process always makes you feel like you’ve truly earned your meal. Still, you don’t have to do all the work yourself in order to enjoy this old New England tradition.

These days, there are a number of Maine companies that do their ‘bakes the old fashioned way, layering with seaweed and baking up local seafood on the shore. One such company is the Great Maine Lobsterbake Co. owned and operated by Courtney MacIsaac, a native of Peaks Island.

MacIsaac grew up on Peaks doing her own lobsterbakes on the rocks at the back of the island where cooking fires are still permitted. She and her friends and family would make a circle of rocks, light coals in the middle, and boil their dinners in pots perched atop the self-styled cookfires.

Today, MacIsaac caters lobsterbakes at various locations — on Peaks Island, in your backyard, wherever you like — using her own unique stainless steel cooker and serving up a feast to satisfy even the most traditional Downeasters. From the delectable Bangs Island Mussels, which are grown right here in Casco Bay, and lobsters purchased from Portland Lobster Pound & Fish Company on Commercial Street to the homemade blueberry cake baked from scratch, MacIsaac throws a mean clambake. And while it’s true that doing it yourself can be immensely rewarding, it can also be greatly satisfying to sit back and just enjoy the results.