How Homemade Potato Chips Led to the Creation of Fried Clams

If you love fried clams, you should thank Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman, a local fisherman and his homemade potato chips.

Because you might be surprised to know that the creation of the New England fried clam was in Massachusetts.

And that was over 100 years ago!

One Day, Business Was Slow in Chubby's Essex, Massachusetts, Store

According to woodmans.com, Chubby and his wife, Bessie, had a small store where they sold various items that people needed, including homemade potato chips and freshly foraged clams that Chubby himself dug up.

The restaurant website states that on July 3, 1916, a local fisherman munching on some home chips was listening to Chubby talk about how business had been slow lately, and said:

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.

The customers in the store thought for sure he was joking, according to Woodmans.com, as there was no way that you could fry a clam. It's in a shell.

However, Chubby and Bessie couldn't get the idea out of their head, so when the store closed, they decided to give it a whirl.

They shucked some clams and experimented with the batter, deep fried them, and called over some of the locals to try them out, according to woodmans.com

Chubby and his wife sold the fried clams at the 4th of July parade, and they were a big hit.

I mean, how could they not be? New England fried cllams are battered and fried in lard. Oh my LAAAWD, they are the most delicious.

The rest is history. The fried clam was born at Woodman's in Essex, Massachusetts.

Check out this article about Guy Fieri's love of Farnham's fried clams of Essex Massachusetts. And you thought Ipswich, Massachusetts, was the home of the fried clam. We were both wrong. It's Essex.