Fried clams are

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s dipped in milk, floured, and deep-fried. Fried clams are an iconic food, "to

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, what barbecue is to the South". They tend to be served at seaside clam shacks (roadside restaurants). Clam rolls are fried clams served in a

hot dog bun A hot dog bun is a type of soft bun shaped specifically to contain a hot dog or another type of sausage. The side-loading bun is common in most of the United States, while the top-loading New England-style hot dog bun is popular in that regio ...

. They are usually served with

Tartar sauce Tartar sauce (French: ''sauce tartare''; spelled tartare sauce in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, South Africa) is a condiment made of mayonnaise, chopped pickles and/or relish, capers, and herbs such as tarragon and dill. Tart ...

Preparation

The clams are dipped in

evaporated milk Evaporated milk, known in some countries as "unsweetened condensed milk", is a shelf-stable canned cow’s milk product where about 60% of the water has been removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains adde ...

, then coated with some combination of regular, corn, and pastry flour. The coated clams are fried in canola oil,

soybean oil Soybean oil (British English: soyabean oil) is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean (''Glycine max''). It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils and the second most consumed vegetable oil. As a drying oil, processe ...

, or

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the ...

. The usual variant in New England is made from whole soft-shell clams, known as "whole-bellies"; these include the clam's gastrointestinal tract and have a fuller flavor. Some restaurants remove the clam's chewy siphon called the neck. Outside New England, clam strips, made of sliced

Atlantic surf clam The Atlantic surf clam (''Spisula solidissima''), also called the bar clam, hen clam, skimmer or simply sea clam, is a very large, edible, saltwater clam or marine bivalve mollusk in the family Mactridae. It is commonly found in the western Atla ...

s, are more common.

History

Fried clams are mentioned as early as 1840, and are listed on an 1865 menu from the

Parker House Parker may refer to: Persons * Parker (given name) * Parker (surname) Places Place names in the United States * Parker, Arizona *Parker, Colorado *Parker, Florida * Parker, Idaho * Parker, Kansas * Parker, Missouri * Parker, North Carolina *Parke ...

hotel. How exactly they were prepared is unclear; the 1865 menu offers both "oysters—fried" and "oysters—fried in batter", but only "fried clams".see the Parker House menu from 1865 with fried clams and oysters to the right Nineteenth-century American cookbooks describe several different dishes of fried clams: * Seasoned clams sautéed in butter. (1850) Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson, Martha Read, ''The National Cookbook'', 1856 (preface dated 1850)
p. 33
/ref> * Clams breaded (with egg binding) and sautéed in butter or fat. (1850) (1904)Charles Fellows, ''The Culinary Handbook'', Chicago, 1904
p. 58
/ref> * Clams in a beaten egg batter, fried in butter, called "clam fritters". (1850) (1904) The modern deep-fried, breaded version is generally credited to Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman from

Essex, Massachusetts Essex is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, 26 miles (42 km) north of Boston and 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Newburyport. It is known for its former role as a center of shipbuilding. The population was 3,675 at the 2020 ...

. He is said to have created the first batch on July 3, 1916, in his small roadside restaurant, now Woodman's of Essex. One of his specialties was potato chips, so he had large vats for deep-frying. He used clams he had collected himself from the mud flats of the Essex River, located close to his home. Later, Thomas Soffron, of Soffron Brothers Clam Co., based in

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A resid ...

, created clam strips, which are made from the "foot" of hard-shelled sea clams. He sold these to

Howard Johnson's Howard Johnson's, or Howard Johnson by Wyndham, is an American hotel chain and former restaurant chain. Founded by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925 as a restaurant, it was the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. throughout the 1960s and 1970s, ...

in an exclusive deal, and as the chain expanded, they became popular throughout the country.

Health and dietary considerations

Clams in themselves are low in

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell memb ...

and fat, but fried clams absorb

cooking fat Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil ...

References

{{Cuisine of New England New England cuisine Clam dishes Deep fried foods