How A Passing Joke Led To The Delicious Invention Of Fried Clams

It's difficult to believe now, but fried clams — the essence of summertime at the beach — started as a joke. In fact, the very mention of tossing a few clams in the fryer drew astounded stares and even mockery. It all began on July 3, 1916. A Massachusetts fisherman named Tarr (his first name lost to history) was shooting the breeze with his buddy Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman. Woodman and his wife, Bessie, operated a concession stand/grocery market on the main drag in Essex, Massachusetts. Tarr had dropped in to pick up a bag of Bessie's homemade potato chips when "Chubby" started bemoaning the lack of customers and telling his friend business had been "slower than a couple of snails headed uphill" (per Woodman's).

Tarr, crunching on his chips while listening to his buddy vent his frustration, noticed a bucket of clams nearby and threw out an offhand suggestion. According to family lore, Tarr said something along the lines of, "Why don't you fry up some of your clams? If they're as tasty as those potato chips of yours, you'll never have to worry about having enough customers" (per Woodman's). And the rest, as they say, is history. Almost. The Woodmans and a few customers who overheard the exchange scoffed at the idea. Chagrined, Tarr muttered, "I wasn't serious, it was just a little joke," and skedaddled out of the market. Maybe he should have stuck around.

Despite their initial disdain for Tarr's suggestion, the idea of frying clams kept nagging at the Woodmans. It was a slow day, so — in a what-the-hell moment — they decided to try them. They shelled a few clams and experimented with batters and coatings. When they thought they had the right proportions, Bessie tossed a slab of lard into the fryer she used to make potato chips. Then she dropped the clams into the fryer. The result was delicious — crunchy on the outside and succulent on the inside. Stunned, they hailed a few friends to taste their creation. Everyone agreed they were onto something. The following day — the Fourth of July — Bessie and Chubby distributed fried clams to the spectators near their market to watch the holiday parade.

More than 100 years later, Woodman's of Essex is still a family-owned and run establishment. It's expanded to include a rustic dining room, a seasonal raw bar, an ice cream stand, and a souvenir shop. Picnic tables scattered on the lawn overlooking an adjacent salt marsh fill up quickly on warm summer nights. Woodman's of Essex still makes fried clams according to the same recipe Chubby and Bessie developed in 1916. Every order gets a quick milk wash before it's dredged in corn flour and dropped into the fryer. "Our recipe hasn't changed," Chubby's grandson, Steve Woodman, told Phantom Gourmet in 2016. "We still cook in lard. There aren't too many places that cook in lard anymore."