Tip - The Deep-Fried Truth About Ipswich Clams; No matter the source of the harvest, the secret to a classic seaside meal may be the mud.

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)