Fried Clams appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Fried clams · Boston
Fried clams are fresh 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 and the 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