No. 998

Soft Clams Fried, Garnished with Fried Parsley

Lucines Papillons Frites Garnies au Persil Frit

Drain some medium sized soft clams; immerse them in milk, drain them once more, then roll them in flour and fry. After being rolled in the flour, they may be dipped in beaten eggs, then in bread-crumbs and fried until a fine color is assumed; dress them on a napkin, garnishing with fried parsley.

← No. 997 Stuffed Clams Clams No. 999 Soft Clams on Skewers or Hatelets →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives no temperature, time or quantity, which is normal for The Epicurean — it was written for cooks who already knew. The hinge is the frying itself: soft clams are tender to begin with and need only long enough to set the crust.

What "soft clams" meansSoft-shell clams, Mya arenaria — steamers, longnecks, the clam sold whole-belly on the New England coast. Not the hard-shell quahog or littleneck, which is firmer and is generally fried cut into strips rather than whole. Shucked whole-belly clams are sold in tubs at good fish counters.
Grit firstSoft clams live in mud and hold sand in the belly. Let them sit in cold salted water an hour or so before shucking, and after shucking peel the tough sheath from the siphon. Ranhofer assumed his staff had already done both.
The milk dipThe milk is not a marinade; it is there to wet the surface so flour clings. Drain well, or the coating turns to paste. This is the same procedure behind the modern fried-clam breading.
Frying temperatureRanhofer gives no temperature. Modern practice for this kind of frying is roughly 360-375F: below that the coating soaks fat; much above it and the crumbs color before the clam heats through.
TimingSixty to ninety seconds, until the crust is pale gold. Clams cooked longer contract and go rubbery, and the belly — the whole point of a whole-belly clam — turns grainy.
Fried parsleyFlat-leaf or curly, well dried, dropped into the same fat for about ten seconds until it stops sputtering and turns dark green and brittle. Wet parsley will spit violently; dry it thoroughly on a towel first.
"Dress them on a napkin"A folded linen napkin on the platter absorbed frying fat, the period equivalent of draining on paper. Use a rack or paper towels and then transfer if you want the effect.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. As a rough modern estimate, about a pint of shucked clams serves four as a first course; the count per pint varies with size. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop out of range.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of the restaurant's kitchen, and its clam section is a generous one, setting an American shellfish beside the French repertoire — the French title, Lucines Papillons Frites, dresses a New York clam in Parisian clothes, though whether Ranhofer coined the term himself or drew on existing usage is not clear. Soft-shell clams were cheap and abundant along the Atlantic coast in the nineteenth century, dug at low tide from mudflats from Long Island to Maine, and the flour-egg-crumb treatment here anticipates the fried clam later sold at shore stands throughout New England. The garnish of fried parsley was a standard finish for fried fish and shellfish in the classical kitchen, valued for the color and the crackle rather than for flavor, and it recurs elsewhere in the book.