Crispy Homemade Clam Cakes
These homemade clam cakes are light, crisp, stuffed with clams, and never greasy. The perfect clam cake recipe!
By Amy Traverso|Aug 15 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanFor many of us, it just isn’t summer without a batch of clam cakes fresh from the fryer. We love this recipe because it turns out terrifically crisp homemade clam cakes that are fluffy and stuffed with clams, but not greasy. The trick is using mostly baking soda as the leavening, which is activated by the lemon juice in the recipe.
SEE MORE:
How to Make Clam Cakes | Step by Step
Fried Clams | Bellies Vs. Strips
Stuffed Clams
New England Clam Dip
Yield:
30 clam cakesIngredients
Vegetable oil for frying
2 cups chopped clams, with juices
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Set a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add vegetable oil to a depth of 3 inches. Bring oil to 375° (or as close as you can).
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the clams with their juices, milk, egg and butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and pepper. Add the clam mixture to the dry ingredients along with the lemon juice and stir just until combined (do not overmix).
Drop batter into the oil by the heaping tablespoon (we use a medium cookie dough scoop). Work in batches so as not to crowd the pan, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain the temperature.
Fry until clam cakes are nicely browned and cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes total. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to cool. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm, with lemon wedges on the side.
I hate to ask, but would this work with canned clams? if so should they be drained, they usually have a lot of juice. Am unable to get fresh ones
I make these in the summer and if you can’t find fresh or frozen clams, canned will work. I would just use a little more clams.
looks good, was wondering about substituting the clam with other seafood, maybe crab?
Yes, this would work with crabmeat as long as texture is the same
I’ve found that Crab (or lobster)Chorizo, Sweet Corn and Cheddar makes a nice combo. The chorizo needs to be ground up for flavor dispersion, saute it first to develop the oils, toss corn, etc, proceed as normal. Might want to add a bit more spice.
How would one get 2 cups of clams with juices? Are these raw and how so you get them out of the shells? Where do these juices come from – after you dig a knife into the shell and yank it open clam and juices fall out into your container? And then you chop them? How many live clams in their shells would one buy to get 2 cups of glop to put in the batter? Sorry to be dumb but I never watched my mother cook.
use canned
Most stores now sell de-shelled clams in the frozen seafood section. You can also buy fresh clams at the seafood counter. I’m sure they would measure an approximate amount for you. You can buy clam juice in bottles, usually on the shelves near cans of tuna.
Whole Foods has wonderful chopped clams with juices. We use them in my clam chowder recipe. Price is reasonable for the Quality.
i order the mix from ri kenyons or iggys they will ship the mix and clams anywhere
These are excellent
Portion scoops have numbers designating the portion size. Which number should be used to match the portion size?
Growing up in Maine, I’ve only had the flat clam cakes, the size of a Mcdonalds hamburger. Served cupped in a napkin , eaten wth hands. Gotta get back to Get
I would love the recipe for the flat ones.
these are made with quohog, hard shell clams,not the soft shell clam. which is the clam used only for steaming. certain clams are used in certain ways .type in clams on your computer for info
Do you use just the strips? Discard the bellies?
I use frozen chopped clams from Whole Foods and I add about 2oz of beer in the mix. Old trick from many clam bakes in RI.
These are the BEST thing in the world to eat with a bowl of manhattan clam chowda. Use to go to a spot in Bellingham MA called the Chowder Bowl. In its day no one made better clam cakes. And forget about the flat clam cakes. I live in Maine now and the ones I have had here and in the Salisbury Ma area are 90% breading. I’d rather eat a big spoon of Father John’s Cod Liver Oil.
What an awful memory St. John’s brought back! If you weren’t sick before you had to take it, you definitely were after….
This recipe seems to be more like a fritter than a cake, I expect clam cakes the way you get them in Maine round flat like a fish or crab cake. Deb I would also like your recipe for the flat ones, no matter how much I look I can only find recipes for the fritter type, I even have made up my own recipe but haven’t quite perfected it yet. Best clam cakes are in Maine at Huot’s in pine point.
These clam cakes are quite good and easy to make. Cooked up a batch using canned chopped clams (4 cans) and all the liquid along with rest of recipe and served with shoestring fries and salad all washed down with some Narragansett and Cape Cod beers. Delicious!
I agree these aren’t the Maine clam cakes. Best ones IMHO are at Ken’s in Scarborough!
Ken’s???? No clam taste at all in his clam cakes! In fact, you can hardly find a piece of clam!
These are not New England Clam Cakes. Clam cakes in New England are flat patties about 1/2″ thick and 3″ round. This recipe is for clam fritters.
I grew up in Massachusetts, went to Rocky Point Dinner Hall. They served clam chowder, clam CAKES and watermelon. They were just like these. They labeled them clam CAKES on the menu.
Clam cakes were also sold at our outdoor movie driveins at the consestion stand. They were listed there as clam cakes. What ever you want to call them they are wonderful.
you are right, they are not clam cakes unless they are flat round and 3″ in diameter and from HUOT’S in Camp Ellis, ME
I’ve never had a clam cake from Maine, but these are just like the real deal Rhode Island clam cakes that have been made at places like Flo’s Clam Shack for generations. Not quite as good as Flo’s I guess, but when you no longer live near lil Rhodie you take what you can get.
Rhode island is where true clam cakes like these were born: best dipped in Rhode Island clear broth chowder, part of our state’s unique and fabulous cuisine. I grew up on these and only made them at home for the first time last winter, using canned clams and their broth — they were delicious!
I have to laugh at the people who say these are not clam cakes. If you are not from Rhode Island or southern Mass then you wouldn’t understand. These are and always have been Clamcakes. I grew up on these in the 60’s and 70’s and still make them to this day. DO NOT mix them up with crab cakes which are more like a patty and cooked in a pan in a small amount of oil or butter. Just because they are cooked in a fryalator does not mean they are a fritter.
I grew up in New Bedford in the 40’s and 50’s, and loved the Clam ‘fritters’ sold at Lincoln Park. They now call them clam cakes in restaurants, so maybe it is a generation thing! Does anyone have THAT Lincoln park recipe?
I was born and brought up in Maine. I am a lover of sea food if it is cooked the Maine way. Those are certainly fritters, not clam cakes. Can the same recipe be used for the flat round real cakes?
This recipe refers to Rhode Island Style Clam Cakes. Clam cakes found once upon a time at Rocky Point, clam cakes you can find at George’s, Iggy’s, and Flo’s. Yes they are fritters but we in Rhode Island call them clam cakes.
I just finished making clam cakes using this recipe but I tweaked it by using 1/2 cup of beer and freshly steamed clams in melted butter in addition to the a small can of chopped clams and juice. I didn’t have lemon juice but I had lime on hand so I substituted it. These clam cakes are the lightest, yet crispiest clam cakes I have ever tasted! Growing up in Rhode Island, by the way, I never had a flat clam cake RI., these come out like the size of an apple! If you moved out of RI and are yearning for clam cakes , this recipe will satisfy you and bring you home ! Great job Amy!
Did you use the 1/2 cup of milk along with the 1/2 cup of beer
I live on Long Island, so during hot summers my late husband and I would drive to Ogunquit, ME for respite. On the way, we always stopped wherever we saw a sign for “clam balls.” (Yes, balls. lol) They were round, crispy, and delicious. We couldn’t get enough of them. How wonderful to find a recipe to make them at home.
As I read the comments, I had to chuckle about the different between genuine clam fritters, cakes, and fritters. Perhaps calling these “balls” will solve the problem?
I was the administrator of a FB food group (now defunct) and the arguments about calling tomato sugo “sauce” versus “gravy” drove everyone nuts. After a bit of research, I found out there really is a tomato gravy which is a southern recipe and nothing at all Italian. In my Italian home, we called it sauce. In my mind, gravy is brown and poured over meats and potatoes. Not that I’m starting an argument or anything…lol!
I’m from Long Island as well. It’s tomato sauce they called it gravy in the city. Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx.
I am from queens my grandpa was from Italy and it was sauce and we never called it Sunday sauce either gravy is brown does not matter where you lived in NY people all over some call it gravy but it is sauce
Yes use the juice in the canned whole clams – I use minced clams also for more flavor BUT if you aren’t from Rhode Island the Maine “cakes” look like pancakes NOT so with the native RI real fritters and clear clam chowder [ not white milk or red Manhattan ]
Is it possible to find chopped clam strips? I cannot stand the bellies. But, I love this recipe as it reminds me of shrimp cakes/fritters/balls/whatever, from the South. I’m from New England, but the landlocked state where our fish was usually mercury-loaded from Lake Champlain.
Great recipes!! From Massachusetts, and love clam cake and Maine clam balls????????
I’m from massachusetts and would visit Rudolph’s on revere beach and get these huge clam ball. If anyone knows of their recipe I would love to have it. Been looking for years.
OK, looks like it might be good, I’ll try it, but, I’m pretty sure it should have some stone ground flint corn meal of some type. During the 60’s and 70’s we would go to Point Judith and get some fritters and stop at Kenyons Grist Mill on the way back. Nowadays, as a chef in the Boston/RI/NH/VT area, Drum Rock is pretty much the standard, and everyone uses a blend of corn and reg flour. i’ll try this recipe, but I might just make a second batch with some fine ground corn meal. just seems right to me.
Want to try this recipe, but how thick does the batter come out? Tried another recipe for these and batter was pretty thin and looked like funnel cake in the fryer, I had to thicken by adding more flour. Thanks
It’s all good, but growing up in R.I. they were always round and deliscious Ohhh I can taste them now
As a kid I remember clam cakes. Went back to Maine for a visit years later and could not find clam cakes anywhere. Harmons had them for awhile. Why can’t you get them anymore. Used to get them at Old Orchard Beach. Miss the old days.
This post made me hungry. I live in Rhode Island, tomorrow we will go to Point Judith and have Clamcakes as big as baseballs and clear Rhode Island chowder. At Aunt Carries who has won the best clamcakes in RI MANY YEARS IN A ROW.
We love going to Point Judith. Usually eat at “Champlin’s” but after reading this, we’ll try “Aunt Carries” As soon as this Covid-19 nightmare is over… Thanks!
I was born and raised in Rhode Island in the area the locals call South County. With Aunt Carrie’s, George’s and Champlin’s, the clam cakes were outstanding! As a kid, we would stop on our way to East Matunuck Beach at a clam shack in our town called The Seagull, now transformed into the Matunuck Oyster Bar!
It’s not chowder if it’s clear. Clear would be clam broth! lol
I grew up in Western Mass. and every year went to the Eastern States Exposition. That’s where I first had delicious clam cakes at the Rhode Island building.
????
I remember those Old Orchard Beach clam cakes. Felicious.
Old orchard beach clam cakes could be Deweys!
Huot’s Clam cakes the best at Camp Ellis, ME down the street from OOB or Old Orchard Beach!
Formerly of Westport, MA, now living in Kentucky. This has become a regular recipe here. Make them at least once a month and boy are they hood. Best clam cakes ever.
While they’re not always on the menu, Helen’s in Ellsworth, Maine sometimes features them on their “Specials” board. (Even when not listed, I’ve been able to get in an order of two.) BEST MEAL AROUND! This establishment was opened by a former employee of Helen’s in Machias, and they do the name justice. Love their baked stuffed haddock, and the garden salad and loaf of fresh bread served with the meals are both extraordinary. Now if they’d only put the crab cakes on the daily menu…….
Helen’s is fantastic! We often used to stop there on the way up to the sleep-away camp in Machias, and also visited the Machias restaurant. Be sure to save room for pie if you visit – the chocolate cream and banana cream pies are the best around.
Do any of you from Rhode Island know where the dock is on Point Judith where you can buy lobsters from the fishermen on the dock? We live in CT but spend a lot of time camping in RI. As a young adult we went to the docks but danged if I can find it now …
Thanks!!! ????
Gallali
I think you must have been somewhere else because I don’t believe there is a dock at point Judith… maybe Galilee?
You are looking for Galilee. Route 1 to route 108 in Narragansett, RI
I am originally from Massachusetts but live in North Carolina and I have made these and they turned out fantastic as they tasted just the way I remember clam cakes/fritters tasting. I used canned clams in these and they worked just fine. This recipe is so easy and these really do come out great. And it is a great taste of home. As New England seafood and Southern seafood are totally different Just saying.
I grew up in RI where clam cakes originated, I believe. I have several recipes for clam cakes-my mother’s and the recipe used at Rocky Point Shore Dinner Hall where I worked during my college summers. I will compare this recipe to the others. I am interested in where your recipe is from since you didn’t credit it. There are so many great places in RI to get clam cakes including the ones mentioned in the comments.
I grew up in RI and one of my best memories was going to the Rocky Point Shore Dinner hall with my brothers, parents and grandfather. They were the best clam cakes in the world.
I’ve had awesome ones at Flo’s, Aunt Carries and Champlain’s. But some of the best were in Seekonk, Ma a small place called “Phoebe’s. Her son has a restaurant in Warren, but never had Clam Cakes there.
We lived in East Bay and everytime we went to So County we would stop at Kenyon’s. I live in Montana, but always bring back Kenyon’s. Gonna try this recipe.
I loved Rocky Point Shore Dining Hall! So many good family memories. You probably waited on my family!
Awesome recipes
I grew up in RI and my mom made these often. She would separate the egg and beat the egg whites until peaks formed and then folded into the batter just before frying. She would make them every Sunday as part of a cookout after being out on our boat all day. Always made with fresh clams from Narragansett Bay.
Question to a previous comment once your grandmother beat the egg white and folds into batter did she then fold the egg yolk in the batter as well? Thanks for sharing
I first had clam cakes in Maine, they were flat the size of a burger. Wiscasset serves them also. The ‘cakes’ you posted is really a fritter. What is the recipe for clam ‘cake’?
This is the recipe for clam cakes, which are a type of fritter.
These are clam fritters, done up much in the same way as corn fritters. Clam cakes are flat, like burgers.
No, this is a clam “cake”. 🙂
Crab cakes are flat. Clam cakes are round. Born and raised in Newport, RI.
I was raised in Maine, my husband was raised in Rhode Island. HE is the one that was raised with these – they call them Clam Cakes and therefore I agree with him. My idea of a cake is different, but I didn’t grow up in RI . It is merely a matter of geography people. Just like a Maine lobster roll is different to many people…we Mainer’s think there is only one way to consider it legit. I will be making my husband his Clam Cakes tomorrow – no debate on whether it’s a fritter or a cake…to him it’s a cake!!!
funny. I grew up in RI and my wife grew up in Maine. Friday I am making RI clam cakes and Rocky point chowder. I also have been told I make the best Maine clam cakes also. I’ve been up here since 1963 so I have had a lot of practice.
You are mistaken. These are definitely RI clam CAKES! NOT fritters!
Local legend holds that clam cakes were first served at Aunt Carrie’s, a seafood restaurant in Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1920. According to this legend, Carrie Cooper invented clam cakes by adding fresh clams to her corn fritter recipe, thus inventing clam fritters.
Sheila S. … You are obviously not familiar with the foods of New England. What is pictured is definitely a clam cake…..Enjoy!
These are most definitely Rhode Island Clam Cakes. I grew up in Kingston, RI, eating them. My favorites were from George’s.
I agree. My favorite beach was Scarborough and we always stopped at Aunt Carrie’s for clam cakes. They were the best!
I call them clam cakes but ya know what? It doesn’t matter what you call them, they’re divine!
My favorite part of the Eastern States Exposition in Western Massachusetts was the clam fritters in the Rhode Island building. Been searching for a recipe to make them at home. Haven’t found it yet. These came out so greasy I couldn’t bear it, even after squeezing the oil out individually. I was sold on the use of baking soda combining with the lemon juice. That made them nice and light and fluffy like my pancakes, but so porous they were saturated in oil (maintained a good temp). I will try this recipe on the griddle though.
The clam cakes are made by Kenyon’s, they sell premixed dry clam cake batter……just as good as the Big E, except you can make them at home whenever you want!
I grew up in what was once the largest and most profitable fishing port in the country . I don’t have to mention my hometowns name anyone anywhere in Massachusetts or Rhode Island Vermont Maine New Hampshire all know this fishing port and we are the king of seafood but I must give Maine some well-deserved credit they are fabulous with their Seafood also. they are called cakes but you can call them fritters which I think they are more like. only my hometown in Southeastern Massachusetts can take claim to fame About Seafood and the many many ways it can be enjoyed. has anyone ever heard of Genes Seafood?
Dereck, I was gonna guess Glawstah but you said SE MA so I had to google Gene’s and saw the location. I never knew F was that big a seafood port. Thanks for the info and now I have some researching to do as I’m a history freak
Good Morning Mike, F ( can’t mention actual names? Is that a thing?) is not the # 1 fishing port in the US, it’s the town right next to it. New Bedford. I know, because I reside there.
You’re right, N.B.
i have visited Gene’s famous seafood quite often ,YUM. southcoast of massachusetts in wonderful for choices of fresh seafood!
Rte 6 in Fairhaven, the food is great there.
These were fluffy and had plenty of clams, but tasted like baking soda and were greasy. I don’t know about reducing the baking soda, but I’ll leave out the butter for sure.
It seems that clam juices amount would be crucial to a proper batter consistency. Might someone measure their approximate result and post same? I’d sure appreciate the guidance !
Many years ago worked at the Grove in Scarborough, ME and we made clamcakes with clams and cracker meal only….
I grew up in Fairhaven. I went to school with one of Genes sons in the first grade. My family always went to Genes for fried clams or clam cakes. They are the best and I still drive 1 1/2 hrs there from time to time.
Yes, I live close by, haven’t been for a while. Good reminder,thanks
In Gulliver’s Travels, Lilliput went to WAR because to determine if opening an egg at the pointed end or the rounded end was the proper method. For you youngsters, this is a soft-boiled egg in an eggcup. Look it up!
Wonder if these can be cooked in an air fryer
lived in southeastern mass. route 6 in westport there was a place called “McCray’s” . always a long line to get their clam cakes. DELICIOUS. Also clear clam chouda.
I am making this over the weekend! Thank you for sharing!
Dianne M. Blackledge
My husband Bruce and his brother Robert worked at Francis Farm in Rehoboth, Ma during high school and beyond for the Taylor family. Both were taught the art of making clamcakes , the best evah by Memere` & Aura! To this day, he says no one comes close to their recipe! He is a very picky clamcake tester ! the recipe ??????? a secret!