Fried clams

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Fried clams
Fried clams Woodman's of Essex, Massachusetts.jpg
Fried clams from Woodman's of Essex in Essex, Massachusetts.
Place of origin Flag of the United States.svg United States
Region or state New England pine flag.svg New England
Flag of Massachusetts.svg Massachusetts
Flag of New Brunswick.svg New Brunswick
Flag of Nova Scotia.svg Nova Scotia
Created byLawrence "Chubby" Woodman
Main ingredients Ipswich clam

Fried clams are clams dipped in milk, floured, and deep-fried.

Contents

Fried clams are an iconic food, "to New England, what barbecue is to the South". [1] They tend to be served at seaside clam shacks (roadside restaurants). [1] Clam rolls are fried clams served in a New England–style hot dog bun. [2] [3] [ full citation needed ] They are usually served with Tartar sauce. [2] [4]

Preparation

The clams are dipped in evaporated milk, then coated with some combination of regular, corn, and pastry flour. [1] [5] The coated clams are fried in canola oil, soybean oil, or lard. [1] [5]

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. [1] [6] Some restaurants remove the clam's chewy siphon called the neck. [5]

Outside New England, clam strips, made of sliced Atlantic surf clams, are more common. [7]

History

1865 menu with fried clams and oysters Clams-Fried menu 001a.jpg
1865 menu with fried clams and oysters

Fried clams are mentioned as early as 1840, [8] 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". [9]

Nineteenth-century American cookbooks describe several different dishes of fried clams:

The modern deep-fried, breaded version is generally credited to Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman from Essex, Massachusetts. He is said to have created the first batch on July 3, 1916, [12] 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. [13]

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 in an exclusive deal, and as the chain expanded, they became popular throughout the country. [14] [15]

Health and dietary considerations

Clams in themselves are low in cholesterol and fat, but fried clams absorb cooking fat. [16]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Tempura</i> Japanese dish of battered, deep-fried fish or vegetables

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish fry</span> Dish consisting of battered or breaded fried fish

A fish fry is a meal containing battered or breaded fried fish. It usually also includes french fries, coleslaw, macaroni salad, lemon slices, tartar sauce, hot sauce, malt vinegar and dessert. Some Native American versions are cooked by coating fish with semolina and egg yolk.

Cutlet refers to:

  1. a thin slice of meat from the leg or ribs of mutton, veal, pork, or chicken
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  4. a kind of fish cut where the fish is sliced perpendicular to the spine, rather than parallel ; often synonymous with steak
  5. a prawn or shrimp with its head and outer shell removed, leaving only the flesh and tail
  6. a mash of vegetables fried with bread
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A crab cake is a variety of fishcake popular in the United States. It is composed of crab meat and various other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, eggs, and seasonings. It is then sautéed, baked, grilled, deep fried, or broiled. Crab cakes are traditionally associated with the Chesapeake Bay, in the state of Maryland. Although the earliest use of the term "crab cake" is commonly believed to date to Crosby Gaige's 1939 publication New York World's Fair Cook Book in which they are described as "Baltimore crab cakes," earlier usages can be found such as in Thomas J. Murrey's book Cookery with a Chafing Dish published in 1891.

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A collop is a slice of meat, according to one definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. In Elizabethan times, "collops" came to refer specifically to slices of bacon. Shrove Monday, also known as Collop Monday, was traditionally the last day to cook and eat meat before Ash Wednesday, which was a non-meat day in the pre-Lenten season also known as Shrovetide. A traditional breakfast dish was collops of bacon topped with a fried egg.

Thomas N. Soffron was the clam digger and restaurateur who created the fried clam strip. He was also a singer and guitarist, member of the Talambekos Mandolinata band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fried chicken</span> Dish of chicken pieces coated with seasoned flour or in batter and then fried

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodman's of Essex</span> Restaurant in Essex

Woodman's of Essex is a seafood restaurant in Essex, Massachusetts. 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 founding in 1914, and is a large employer in the area with over 200 staff during the summer months.

Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman was an entrepreneur and restaurant owner who legend has it invented the fried clam. He opened Woodman's of Essex, first as a clam shack, with his wife Bessie on Main Street in Essex, Massachusetts and sold freshly dug steamer clams as well as ice cream and homemade potato chips.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Leite, David (2007-08-29). "In a '64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date With a Clam". New York Times . Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  2. 1 2 "Sandwich Pride". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2007-12-19. For the fried clam roll, sweet, full-bellied clams are dipped in batter and thrown into the deep fryer. A few minutes later they're laid into a top-loaded hot dog bun with some tartar sauce and a slice of lemon on the side.
  3. "An Ode to the Clam". National Public Radio.
  4. "Battered and Fried". Battered and Fried. Archived from the original on 2007-12-07. Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  5. 1 2 3 Parrish, Marlene (October 21, 2007). "A mission to find glorious fried clams". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  6. Moskin, Julia (2005-06-13). "Dark Days for the Fried Clam, a Summer Staple". New York Times . Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  7. "The great clam debate". Cape Cod Times . Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  8. William E. Burton, "Thaumaturgia". In William E. Burton and Edgar A. Poe, eds., Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, and Monthly American Review , January 1840, p. 70
  9. see the Parker House menu from 1865 with fried clams and oysters to the right
  10. 1 2 3 Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson, Martha Read, The National Cookbook, 1856 (preface dated 1850), p. 33
  11. 1 2 Charles Fellows, The Culinary Handbook, Chicago, 1904, p. 58
  12. Jenkins, Nancy (August 21, 2002). "The Deep-Fried Truth About Ipswich Clams". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  13. Roberts, Steven V. (1983-06-05). "Fare of the Country; Yankee Staple: Clam Fry". New York Times . Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  14. "Thomas Soffron, 96, Creator of Clam Strips". The New York Times . 2004-02-28. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  15. Sovich, Nina (2004-05-01). "Clam King". CNN . Retrieved 2007-12-15.
  16. Roberts, Steven V. "Shellfish and Fat and Cholesterol". Dr. Gourmet Website. p. 1. Retrieved 2009-05-27.