On Saturday, July 3, 2027, clam shacks along the New England coast celebrate National Fried Clam Day. The date comes from one family’s claim to the very first fried clam.
When Does National Fried Clam Day Fall?
It’s July 3, the day before Independence Day. That timing comes straight from the Woodman family story told below.
The Woodmans of Essex and Their Rivals
Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman and his wife, Bessie, opened a small stand on Main Street in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1914, the New England Historical Society records. Yankee Magazine says they sold fruit, chewing gum, homemade potato chips and fresh clams.
Sales were slow until a fisherman named Tarr joked that they should fry clams the way they fried potato chips. So they tried it. They dipped shucked clams in milk and coated them in cornmeal and flour before frying.
It worked. The next day, during the town’s Fourth of July celebration, they sold out, and Woodman’s has served fried clams ever since.
Later, on the back of their wedding certificate, they wrote: “We fried the first fried clam—in the town of Essex, July 3, 1916.”
Older evidence
Their claim has rivals. Yankee Magazine found fried clams on an 1865 menu at Boston’s Parker House. One reader remembered an uncle, Hosea B. Quint, frying clams every Friday at his West Lynn fish market around 1910.
Salem Willows served them too, in a 1912 shore dinner that cost 75 cents. Those early versions may have been cooked differently, but Essex is the story that stuck.
Why New Englanders Love Them
Fried clams belong to a place. They rely on soft-shell clams dug from muddy tidal flats. Clams from nearby Ipswich became the gold standard, and chef Jasper White has called them richer.
Supplies are under pressure, though. Development, pollution and the invasive green crab have all cut into Ipswich clam beds, in the New England Historical Society’s account.
Bellies or Strips
Whole bellies are plump and sweet. Strips, cut from larger clams, have a milder taste. They also leave the sand behind, which is exactly why some diners prefer them, Yankee Magazine says.
Thomas Soffron of Soffron Brothers Clam Co. disliked bellies. He used only the foot of the clam and sold the result as “Tender-sweet Fried Clams.” His company signed an exclusive deal to supply strips to Howard Johnson’s as that chain grew, eventually running seven processing plants.
Readers still argue about it. When Yankee asked, more than 500 people replied. Most picked bellies, and sand was the top reason strip fans gave.
The insults fly both ways. Belly lovers have called strips “fried rubber bands,” while some strip fans find bellies downright “disgusting,” the NEHS notes.
How to Mark the Day
- Order bellies on the North Shore: whole-belly clams are the Essex tradition.
- Run a taste test: put bellies and strips side by side and vote.
- Choose strips if you hate grit: they’re cut from larger clams without the sandy belly.
- Fry them the 1916 way: milk first, then cornmeal and flour.
- Buy from licensed suppliers: it supports the diggers who work the flats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are some fried clams gritty?
Many Cape Cod shacks use hard-shell clams from the sandy ocean floor, which can leave grit, the NEHS points out. Whole bellies can also hold sand.
How quickly did other sellers copy the idea?
Fast. Within a year, a Boston fish market was advertising fried clams.
Where were clam strips most popular?
Howard Johnson’s made them a menu staple in the 1960s and 1970s, so many diners outside New England tasted their first fried clam there.