Fried Clams
Wash soft clams and drain them upon a soft cloth, wiping dry; then, dip each clam first in beaten egg and next in bread crumbs, and again in the egg and crumbs if much breading is liked. One dipping, however, is generally sufficient. Have a frying-pan containing hot fat an inch deep ready for the frying. Test the fat by dropping in a bit of crumb; it should color to a golden hue at once. Lay the clams in the fat one at a time but as quickly as possible and cook them on both sides until brown-not longer than five minutes, however, as this delicate shell-fish, like the oyster, requires but little cooking. Care must be taken that the fat is not too hot, else the clams will burst and not be as fine as they should. Cover the pan in cooking, leaving an open space at one side to allow the escape of steam. Serve very hot.
A straightforward shallow-fry that assumes the cook already has shucked soft clams on the counter. Two things need attention: what "soft clams" means and how brief the frying really is.
- Soft clamsThese are soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), sold as steamers or Ipswich clams — the ones with the protruding siphon, not littlenecks or cherrystones. They are shucked raw for frying; slit the tough sheath off the neck and leave the belly attached, since the belly is what makes a fried clam worth eating. Strip clams (siphons only) are the common substitute and fry faster.
- Fat temperatureThe crumb test is sound: a pinch of breadcrumb should color at once but not blacken, which puts the fat in the usual shallow-frying range. The book's warning about fat that is too hot is real — clams hold a lot of liquid and can burst and spit.
- TimingFive minutes is the outer limit, not a target. Shucked soft clams in a shallow inch of fat will usually be done well before that, as soon as the crust is golden; longer cooking toughens the necks and bellies.
- Drying mattersThe wiping-dry step is the hinge. Wet clams will not hold egg and crumb, and the coating slides off in the pan. Drain them on a cloth or paper, then bread them just before frying rather than in advance.
- Covering the panThe recipe says to cover but leave a gap for steam; it does not say why. In a modern pan a lid traps steam and softens the crust — a splatter screen does the same job without the sogginess.
- Fat to useThe original specifies only 'hot fat'; lard or drippings would have been the likely household choice. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point works; use enough for a true inch, since a thin film will scorch the crumbs before the clam heats through.
- Yield and servingServing -- The recipe gives no quantity or yield. Serve at once with lemon and tartar sauce; fried clams collapse quickly and do not hold in a warm oven.
Fried clams belong to the coastal kitchens of New England, where soft-shell clams were dug from tidal flats in quantity and treated as everyday food rather than a delicacy. The batter-dipped fried clam sold from roadside stands is generally traced to Essex, Massachusetts, in 1916; the egg-and-crumb version here is the older domestic method, closer to a fried oyster than to the later commercial style.