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I wish I could tell you a dramatic origin story about this clam dip, a salty-briney-creamy spread that’s made an appearance at every one of my family’s holiday parties for as long as I can remember. I’d love to say that my grandparents met while both reaching towards it, chips in hand—”No you go!”—at a friend’s house in 1948. But over Thanksgiving, when I asked my mom for any details about it at all, she had little to say other than, “Your grandma always made it, and it was always a hit.”
With an endorsement that strong, does a romantic story even matter? The actual recipe itself is a bit of a non-recipe: Gather one 8-ounce brick of softened cream cheese and one 6.5-ounce can of Snow’s chopped clams. Reserve the clam juice, then add the clams and cream cheese to a bowl, and mix together with a fork, adding clam juice to thin it out as you go. The result is a salty, briney, creamy dip that’s best served with—and this part is important to my mom—Fritos.
