Boiled clams? Sounds gross. I only heard one other person say they boiled clams and that was a greenhorn. Here is a few tips from the experts around these parts, one being my mom.

First shell and clean your clams in cold water. Remove all guts and slime. Split open the digger w/ a pearing knife to remove the guts. Drain good then cover completely with flower, then dip in beaten egg, then cover w/ craker meal. Cook hot and fast. Works best in an electric frying pan. Pour in at least half inch of oil. Heat until it is poping at you. If it aint poping it's not hot enough. If you want tender claims clean in cold water and cook hot and fast. Lay clams in pan then sprinkle w/ black pepper and a little Johny's. Cook about 2 minutes till light, golden brown then flip and season and cook the other side.

The best fried clams I ever had the lady scalded the clams to open them which helped the slim to come off. She cooked them the same way described above and they were so tender you could cut through the necks w/ a fork. She is the only one I ever new of that could do that to a clam and not have it come out like shoe leather. Tried it once. Shoe leather!

It's hard messy cooking. Best if you have one person breading, one person cooking and maybe a kid to refill the flour, craker meal or whip up some more eggs, get the production line going. My neighbor always fried hers in the garage to keep the oil splatter mess and smell out of her kitchen.

Dave, the microwave thing sounds interesting. Think I'd like to give it a try. Just do it like you described? Sounds too easy and good.