How to Shuck Soft Shelled Clams

(Mya arenaria): WILD Soft Shell Clams have many names –but here in Maine they are best known as the “Steamer” clam.  Regardless of what they are called, these clams thrive in our waters and are a staple to our regional cuisine – a favorite of locals and visitors alike. Many chefs are “rediscovering” these clams …

1. Slide a knife along the underside of the clam’s top shell. Bend back and detach the top shell.   2. Slide a knife under the clam, along the bottom shell, and detach the clam.   3. Pull the dark leathery membrane away from the clam’s siphon.   Thanks to James Peterson for these instructions …

WAS it truly a potato chip entrepreneur named Lawrence Woodman -- known as Chubby -- who invented the Ipswich fried clam? And did it really happen near here, on Boston's North Shore, shortly before noon on a steamy July 3 in the year 1916? Most food-invention stories are apocryphal at best and downright self-promotional at worst, but this one may just have a grain of truth. No less an expert than Jasper White, the dean of New England chefs and a noted seafood authority, has faith in the legend. Mr. White uses $3,000 to $4,000 worth of Ipswich clams every week at his restaurant, Jasper White's Summer Shack, in Cambridge, Mass. Right now, at today's prices, that's about 40 gallons of shucked clams a week, he told me, adding that most of those Ipswich clams end up in his Friolator. (By my calculations, that's some 16,000 individual clams.)
Tags: RECIPES, CLAMS, FISH AND OTHER MARINE LIFE,MAINE, IPSWICH (MASS)