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Phantom Gourmet: North Shore Clam Shack Tour

To kick off summer, Phantom is taking a tasty tour of the most famous clam shacks on the North Shore.

WOODMAN'S OF ESSEX

As legend has it, the fried clam was invented at Woodman's a century ago, when a man named Chubby Woodman, who was known at the time for selling potato chips, was given the suggestion to drop some clams in the fryer instead. According to Chubby's grandson Steve, the rest is delicious culinary history.

"They said, 'Chubby, if you take some of these clams and you fry them, they'd be great.' He and my grandma said, 'Yeah, great idea.' They tried it and people loved them. So, Woodman's is the original clam shack."

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They invented it and Woodman's still sets the standard. The coating is very light, and doesn't fall off when you take a bite. In terms of flavor, what you want to taste, and what you do taste, is fresh, local, sweet, juicy, fried clam.

Woodman's also has thick, puffy onion rings and big lobster rolls, but it's those fried clams that keep people coming back. Amazingly enough, they're still making them the same way Chubby did 100 years ago.

"Our recipe hasn't changed. We still cook in lard. There aren't too many places that cook in lard anymore, but the way science is coming out now, they're finding out that lard is better for you than a lot of these vegetable oils and things that they put together. So we're a health food I guess," Steve laughed.

J.T. FARNUM'S

Just down the road from Woodman's, on the banks of the Essex Salt Marsh, is another famous place. This one is completely old school. If you ask the locals where they go, they'll tell you J.T. Farnum's for their famous clams.

Farnum's has been around for about 75 years, and for the last 20, it's been run by Joe and Terry Cellucci. Joe runs the kitchen, and Terry runs the dining room, which helps keeps their business and their marriage running smoothly.

"He's out back, I'm out front so we have our boundaries," Terry said. "We don't cross that threshold."

They like to use clams that are a bit smaller than the ones you'll find everywhere else, and they like to dunk them in a top secret wash before they're tossed in corn flour and fried.

"We do have a four ingredient special wash that we use. Basically we think it has a better crunch than just straight evaporated milk," Joe explained.

If you're a fan of crispy fried clams, Farnum's is the spot to go. The batter to belly ratio is a lot greater, so when you take that bite into the fried clam, you get a big crunch.

Another thing the locals love is Farnum's chowder. They actually serve four different styles, but the Seafood Chowder is the one to try, with its whole shrimp, jumbo scallops and large chunks of lobster.

"We do a Seafood Chowder which was invented as a mistake, when someone at the end of the shift combined the clam chowder with the haddock chowder," Terry recalled. "The next day I was told about it and I said, 'Well, we have shrimp, and we have scallops, and we have lobster.' And so we sautéed some of that up and added it to a pot and thus, Seafood Chowder was invented."

CLAM BOX

Take a ride up Route 1A and you'll land at yet another famous place for fried clams. This one is one of the most recognizable pieces of culinary architecture outside of the Hood milk bottle and the Hilltop cactus. It's the world famous Clam Box in Ipswich, shaped like an actual clam box.

Built in 1935, The Clam Box has been a beacon on a hill, beckoning those hungry for fried clams, lobster rolls, and homemade cole slaw.

"When I give people direction, I'll say, 'Follow 1A, and you'll come right into The Clam Box. You can't miss it, because it's shaped like a clam box,'" said owner 'Chickie' Aggelakis.

Of course they're serious about their fried clams. In fact, Chickie personally inspects every clam that comes in.

"I'm very particular about my quality. I always make sure that they're a good size."

There's a reason why people line up at this place for up to an hour in the summer; because their clams are special. First of all, they're big. Then they use a blend of two different flours, yellow corn flour and white pastry flour. They fry them not once, but twice. The other reason Clam Box clams are so good is the oil, which gets changed out every afternoon, no matter how many people are waiting in line.

"We change our oil twice a day. We change it at 2:30 in the afternoon. We have a sign that says we stop cooking for about 15 to 20 minutes, and we dump all the oil out and we put fresh oil in," Chickie explained. "In the 29 years that I've been here, we've always stopped at 2:30, and customers are fine with it."

Because they clean the oil so frequently, you just get a nice, pristine, fresh, clean flavor in every bite.

Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.

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