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Fried Clams

Fried clams are clams coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the clams from their shells.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add 2 tablespoons of water.

  3. Dry the clams with a towel.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the clams first in the egg mixture, then in the cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the clams in sweet lard or butter until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Clam + breadtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Large soft-shell clams
Main ingredient; the tender clam meat cooks quickly in hot fat once coated.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating that shields the clams while they fry.
Sweet lard or butter
Fat that conducts heat for frying and browns the coating; butter adds aroma.

The step that matters

Dry the clams with a towel. Surface moisture keeps the coating from adhering evenly and makes hot fat spatter. Dry clams let the crumb coating crisp and brown rather than steam.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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