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 Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...

. 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 (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, 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 Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...

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, processed s ...

, or lard. 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 clams, are more common.

History

Fried clams are mentioned as early as 1840, and are listed on an 1865 menu from the Parker House 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 Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson (1811–1870) was an American author of books on science, astronomy and cookery. Most of her works were published anonymously or under her maiden name. ''Bouvier's Familiar Astronomy'' "for the use of schools, fami ...

, 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 ce ...

. He is said to have created the first batch on July 3, 1916, in his small roadside restaurant, now

Woodman's of Essex Woodman's of Essex is a seafood restaurant in Essex, Massachusetts (approximately north of Boston). A local favorite, it is also known internationally for its fried clams and New England clam bakes. Woodman's has been a family business since its ...

. 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, 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 mem ...

and fat, but fried clams absorb cooking fat.

References

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