Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Clams

Stewed clams cooked in boiling water, milk, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams thoroughly in several waters to remove sand.

  2. Cover the clams with boiling water and wait for the shells to open.

  3. Remove the clams and place them in a saucepan with a small amount of the cooking liquid.

Finish and serve

  1. In another pan, heat boiling milk and add a good-sized piece of butter.

  2. Combine the clams with the milk and butter when both are just off the boil.

  3. Season with a little pepper and serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Small clams
Provide the main protein and briny flavor that the dish is built around.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the milk.
Boiling milk
Forms the creamy base of the stew and carries the clam flavor.

The step that matters

Combine the clams with the milk and butter when both are just off the boil. Milk that is kept at a hard boil can scorch or curdle and become grainy, and clams held at high heat turn tough and rubbery. Adding them once the liquids are just off the boil keeps the milk smooth and the clams tender.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes