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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Clam cakes. They’re just like crab cakes or fish cakes, only with clams, right? Oh no, my friend. If you think that, you would be terribly, tragically wrong. Because as much as I like crab cakes, a true Rhode Island style clam cake is so, so much more.
Think clam beignet, or donut hole. Only savory. Crispy, golden brown on the outside, pillowy and light on the inside. Steam rises from the first bite. The slightest aroma of brine surrounds you. Tiny chunks of clam nestle themselves in the folds of the pillow, offering surprising bites of chewy meatiness as you down one of these little glories after another. And another.
With the possible exception of the Pacific Northwest, no region can boast mastery of the humble clam like New England. And within New England, it is Rhode Island that does it best. I have never seen these clam cakes any other place. They are a masterpiece of street food. To me, they are why you arrive early at the port of Galilee to await the Block Island ferry.
When I was a boy, I was partial to gigantic plates of fried clams. When I grew a little older, I discovered these clam cakes. And I’ve lusted after them ever since. They are to me the gateway food of Block Island, which is the place I learned to forage and the place whose natural beauty I still hold closest to my heart. My fondest wish is to die an old man in a little cottage on that island. But not just yet.
I am 3,100 miles from Block Island right now, a long way from Galilee and Rhody clam cakes. A few days ago, as I drove home from Bodega Bay, laden with clams, I realized that this was my first real chance to make clam cakes with fresh clams I had caught since I’d moved West years ago. I looked at my bucket of horseneck clams, dug an hour before. While they are certainly not the glorious quahog of my youth, they would do just fine in a clam cake — after all, you grind the clams anyway.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
But then I realized that I don’t actually know how to make these icons of Rhody. I mean, I’ve made beignets a couple times, but surely they can’t really be beignets with clams in them, right? So back home I looked up as many recipes as I could find, and this one sounded closest to what I was looking for. And as it happens, yes, they are basically clam beignets.
I changed the recipe a bit to make it more like how I remembered. No corn. More clams, cake flour instead of all-purpose, and a touch more maple syrup. Maple syrup? Trust me. You need it. Sadly, when I made the recipe with the amount of flour suggested, it was a thin soup the consistency of melted ice cream. No way in hell that would form a clam cake. I added another cup of flour and it was perfect.
Now normally Rhode Island clam cakes are served with Tabasco and tartar sauce. As you might imagine, I am more of a Tabasco man. But I could not keep thinking about how much these were like New Orleans beignets. So I decided to break from Rhode Island tradition and add a little bit of the Big Easy to this recipe: Remoulade.
If I thought I loved clam cakes before this, I may now be a clam cake junkie. Holy crap but this was good! The recipe I made was way too much for Holly and I to eat at one sitting, but I decided to make them all anyway. We gorged ourselves on clam cakes until we were about to burst. I put the leftover cakes in the fridge.
And you know something? They fried up almost as good the next day. Popped back in the deep fryer for 2-3 minutes, they came out fine. Premade fried food? Yes, please.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
rhode island clam cakes
This recipe is best made with freshly ground clams, although it would still be good with finely chopped clams. Canned would be OK, and better to make it with canned than not at all, but please, please, please make this at least once with fresh clams. You will not be sorry.
Use cake flour if you can get it; it will make a lighter, fluffier cake. All-purpose is fine if you can’t find cake flour. Use a “regular” beer, not a fancy one. Think Budweiser, Miller or Corona. For the remoulade, I used a recipe I developed with Elise from Simply Recipes.
Be sure to keep your oil as close to 350 degrees as you can. The cakes will come out greasy if your oil gets too cool. Fry in batches to prevent this. You can use a Dutch oven with about 3-4 inches of oil in it, but I use a DeLonghi electric fryer, as it’s easier to control temperature with a dedicated fryer. Besides, it’s covered so I don’t get vaporized oil in the air.
If you can’t eat all the cakes in one sitting, leave the oil in the fryer overnight; it’ll be fine. Then reheat and refry the leftover cakes for 2-3 minutes, turning once.
Serves 6-8.
Prep Time: 15 minutes, mostly to let the oil heat up
Cook Time: 15 minutes, as you make these in 5-minute batches
- 1 recipe for remoulade
- Canola or other vegetable oil for frying
- 3 beaten eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup clam broth
- 1/2 cup cold beer
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1 1/2 cups chopped or ground clams
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 1/2 cups cake flour, or all-purpose flour
__________
- Make the remoulade first and set aside. Heat the oil to 350 degrees.
- Mix all the liquid ingredients together except the beer. Mix all the dry ingredients together. When your oil is hot, add the beer to the liquid ingredients and mix gently. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined.
- Drop a tablespoon of batter into the hot oil at a time. Do not crowd the pot. Let them sizzle for 30 seconds or so, then dislodge any that are stuck to the bottom with a chopstick or wooden skewer. Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.
- Drain on paper towels and serve while hot with the remoulade, Tabasco or tartar sauce. And beer. Lots of beer.
These sound wonderful!
I am a Rhody girl born and bred, and yes, I love my clam cakes. Have you ever tried them with malt vinegar and salt? Not as fancy as a remoulade, but very much a beach time favorite.
I have to disagree with you on Rhode Island doing it best
. I am from one of the great clam towns of Massachusetts and clam cakes are not that popular here. There is something about the purity of fried clams with just a bit of cornmeal that will always taste like home to me. It wasn’t until I got older I appreciated the clam cake and they really are something uniquely interesting on their own. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will have to try it out! Love your blog.
I’ve always loved clam cakes! My friends and I used to take special trips to Crescent Park Carousel in E. Prov. just to eat the clam cakes and try to catch the brass ring a few times. It was the one of the best parts of growing up in RI! Thanks for the recipe.
I’m totally going to make this, Hank. Love it.
But I have to ask….Isn’t this a clam fritter? Although thinking of it as a beignet is so much sexier anyway.
Kim
(from Charcutepalooza)
@KimFosterNYC
Going to try this with some razor clam feet I’ve got frozen in the fridge. Normally they go to chowder but they should work great this way…
This sounds so good. ‘ve got to try this! I’m wondering if you could utilize this same batter mixture with other types of seafood as well…aside from clam?
Monica: I bet it would be great with chopped shrimp, too.
Block Island is one of my very favorite places on earth. Providence born and raised, but Block is the place that makes me feel weepy. Sailed there with my brother last summer for an incredible weekend and ate lots of awesome seafood and clamcakes while there. Thanks for the opportunity to daydream my way back there for a few minutes.
Morning walk to Aldo’s for coffee and paper: 10 minutes
Town mooring rental: $40 dollars
Sailing to Block Island with Phyllis and my family to eat clam cakes: Priceless
Conceived and delivered as a true Rho-DIE-land-uh. These are wicked awesome, Hank. Will be making them at my mom and dad’s when I go to RI this summer, and washing them down with some Narragansett beer.
This looks so good and gets me seriously craving an old and great Emeril Lagasse recipe from one of his Louisiana cookbooks called….wait for it…”Shrimp and Eggplant Beignets” and he of course serves it with remoulade.
Very nice post Hank,
I have been clamming that area most of my life and have tried gapers just about every way.
Clam chowder and fried necks are just about as good as it gets.
I look forward to trying this recipe in May when I will be back clamming with the family.
Thanks Hank
Loved your blog! For me, Rocky Point Clam Cakes were the best! After Rocky Point closed it was Galilee. How could you torture yourself by waiting until you crossed the bay when you could have had fabulous clam cakes while on the ferry over?
I was looking for a good clam cake recipe to make for my BF who loves seafood and never had a Clam Cake. I found a local hole in the wall restaurant (I now live in Florida) who makes the most incredible New England Clam Chowder> Seriously,it is just as good as what you get in RI but no clam cakes. Thank you for sharing!
HAD to find a great recipe after raking in 171 cherrystones on Quonochontaug Pond. The count: 86 for me and 85 for my husband! I’ve made chowder, steamers, linguine with clam sauce, stuffies and clam cakes. The recipe I used for clam cakes was disappointing. Aunt Carrie’s clam cakes are THE absolute best. Can’t wait to try THIS recipe!
I dip mine in my coffee ice cream, yummm
Made these little buggers last night along with my favorite chowder recipe. By far the best clam cakes I have ever had! Transported me and my wife back to George’s of Galilee who in my humble opinion had the best clam cakes in Rhode Island. As transplants to Central New York we miss the glorious beaches of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the incredible beach food to be gotten there. With every bite of these tasty morsels I could feel the sand between my toes and smell that incredible sea breeze. now that I have the best clam cake recipe My next quest: the perfect fried clams recipe (with bellies,of course) Your recipe made my day. Thanks
i use to live in new bedford ma. now i live in rock hill s.c. people here never heard of clam cakes.in all the 23 yrs. of the south i am having a severe case of wanting some clam cakes like moms. anyone want to share the recipe? thanks
Spent many a Sunday afternoon with my family driving from CT to RI for these beauties!
Dumb Question–how do you grind the clams?
Joan: I use a regular meat grinder; I have the Kitchenaid attachment. You could pulse the clams in a food processor, or chop them fine with a knife.
Clam Cakes RULE! I can say that cause I am a Rhode Islander and I make and eat them all the time! Must be served with a big bowl of chowda too! I wouldn’t flash that remoulade around these parts. They will know your not a Yankee for sure, lol.
Great blog btw. I’m making the Greek Octopus soon!
Hey, what would you substitute for the beer if you didn’t have it?
Lori: The beer is pretty essential, as it helps the leavening. I suppose you could tinker with the baking powder or baking soda to get the fritters to stay light. Maybe sub in self-rising flour?
Thanks Hank!!!
My wife is from Narragansett and she is stuck here with me in TX. She is soooooo home-sick that sometimes she just starts crying. Im trying real hard to get us there. Hopefully soon. This recipe will make me a HERO. Thank you so much..
I have been to BI Numerous times. . . from 06355 Mystic and now am hundreds of miles away. I looked up the recipe on line & found this. I will make these and remeber my coastal home and the times there. Go Patriots! Turkey day THRASHING of the jerky jets!!!!
We rarely use clams in Clamcakes in RI, we use Quahogs instead. You shuck them, save the juice, grind the bellies up and chop the rest. 2 parts flour, 1 part white corn meal is the standard. Eggs, Baking powder, pepper and salt, that is it. If you make them with only clams which a few places in RI do, they don’t have the same “ocean” taste. I’d say 60 percent of the clamcake shacks use Quahogs which taste much more “clammy” another 30% use a 50/50 mixture of chopped sea clams and Quahogs. Same goes for clam chowder, it is made here with Quahogs rather than clams in most places and is stronger flavored than Clam chowder.
Billy: LOL. Quahogs ARE clams! They are the exact same species as the smaller Cherrystone and Littleneck clams; I used to dig them for a living. All a quahog is is a local name for a “chowder clam.” They are all Mercenaria mercenaria. But don’t feel bad, TONS of New Englanders think they are different species.
I’ve had those hardshell clams that look exactly like Quahogs in California and Vancouver and they taste nothing like the Quahogs from here. In Rhode Island they sell Sea Clams or Quahogs for chowder and clam cakes and they are as different as day and night. The Sea Clam is very blah and the Quahog is stronger “Oceany” taste.
We also sell another variety of clam here that is for steaming and frying and that clam is not from the Deep Sea but from the shores, they live in dirt.
Billy: TRUST me, I have spent many, many years clamming in New York and New England; have even done some commercial clamming. You are right: sea clams and quahogs are different species, and you are also right that the steamer clam is yet another species — and that Western hardshell clams do taste different from Mercenaria mercenaria.
BUT… no matter the size, from littleneck to topneck to cherrystone to chowder/quahog, all the Eastern hardshell clams are the same species.
I believe you that they are the same species just as a buzzard and a chicken are both birds but I wouldn’t use a buzzard in my pot pie. Just as I wouldn’t use any old clam variety in my clamcakes. I was in the Dominican Republic and bought some beautiful looking clams that looked just like Quahogs from here, they were vile and disgusting and could not be used. I even tried those baby clams in the can(Roland brand)….nasty in clamcakes!
This is what the limit of Razor Clams I dug this morning is going to turn into this evening. Hank, thank you for sharing this.
bob