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Clam Fritters
Clam fritters perfectly fried are delicious. Chop fine twenty-five freshly opened clams. Measure out two cupfuls of flour, sift the flour three times with an amount of soda the size of a large pea. Stir a cup of clam juice into the flour, then add the chopped clams, and finally put in a dash of pepper and two eggs. Beat the batter vigorously. When it is even and light melt two spoonfuls of butter in a hot frying pan and drop in large spoonfuls of the mixture, making fritters that barely touch each other when they spread. Cut them separate and turn them. They should be a rich golden brown on both sides. Serve them at once. Some persons prefer more clams to the batter given.
A plain pan fritter rather than a deep-fried one, and the batter is thin enough that spreading is expected. The instruction that matters most is to keep the fritters small and separate, and to cut them apart the moment they run together.
- The clamsTwenty-five freshly opened clams; the recipe does not say which kind, though a hard-shell clam such as a quahog or cherrystone would give roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped meat. Shucked clams sold in tubs work, drained, with their liquor reserved for the cup of clam juice.
- "Soda the size of a large pea"Somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Sifting it three times through the flour is the period way of distributing so small a quantity evenly; with little acid in the batter beyond the clam liquor, the lift from it is slight.
- SpoonfulsThe two spoonfuls of butter are most likely tablespoons; the "large spoonfuls" of batter are bigger, and the recipe's own test is that the fritters should barely touch one another when they spread.
- SaltNone is called for, and none is needed at first — clam liquor carries a good deal. Fry one fritter, taste, and adjust the rest of the batter if it wants seasoning.
- Pan and heatMedium heat; the recipe asks only for a hot frying pan. Two tablespoons of butter will brown and be absorbed quickly; expect to add more between batches, or use half butter and half a neutral oil so the milk solids do not burn.
- TimingTwo to three minutes a side is enough for golden brown. Chopped clams are cooked almost as soon as they are hot, and longer frying only toughens them.
- YieldThe recipe does not say, but the quantity of batter is large and will make well over a dozen. They must go to the table straight from the pan; held warm, the crust softens.
- ConsistencyThe batter should drop thickly from the spoon. If it spreads into lace, work in a little more flour; the note about preferring more clams to batter is sound and firms it up as well.
Clam fritters belong to the Atlantic coast tradition of stretching shellfish with a batter — the same impulse behind Rhode Island clam cakes and the fried clam trade of the Massachusetts shore. The recipe does not name a clam; whichever hard-shell clam was used, its liquor doing duty as the liquid in the batter is thrift as much as flavour.