Fried Clams appears as a signature dish in 2 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Fried clams · Boston
Whole soft-shell clams, dipped in evaporated milk and corn flour and deep-fried until golden. Invented at Woodman's of Essex on the North Shore in 1916, a New England summer-shack staple in Boston ever since.
Lawrence Chubby Woodman of Essex, Massachusetts dropped soft-shell clams into hot lard on July 3, 1916 on a customer's suggestion. The result became the New England roadside-shack staple. Boston-area fried-clam culture follows the North Shore template: whole-belly clams, not strips; evaporated-milk dip; cornmeal-and-flour breading. Neptune Oyster on Salem Street serves the city version, Pauli's on Salem makes them by the basket, and the summer commute up Route 128 to Woodman's, the Clam Box of Ipswich or J.T. Farnham's remains the regional pilgrimage. Belly-on is the canonical Boston preparation; clam strips are the Howard Johnson's industrial version born in the 1950s.
Where to eat in Boston:
- Neptune Oyster
- Union Oyster House
- Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf
- Pauli's
Fried Maine clams · Portland
Whole-belly soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), dredged in evaporated milk and corn flour, then deep-fried until crisp. Maine clam shacks favour whole-belly over strip; the milk-and-corn-flour dredge produces a lacy crust.
Fried clams trace to Woodman's of Essex, Massachusetts, where Chubby Woodman is credited with the first fried clam in 1916. The Maine variant, almost exclusively whole-belly (not strip clams), spread along the working waterfronts through the 1930s and 1940s. The dredging in evaporated milk and corn flour, rather than batter, gives the canonical lacy crust. Portland's Becky's Diner, Bite Into Maine and the Old Port seafood rooms all run them seasonally; the Mid-Coast clam shacks from Wiscasset to Camden are the day-trip destinations.
Where to eat in Portland:
- Becky's Diner
- Scales
- Boone's Fish House + Oyster Room
- Harbor Fish Market