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Clam Soup

A soup made from clams, onion, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Remove the gills from the clams and set the soft parts aside.

  2. Cut off the dark, tough parts of the necks and place them in a pan with 1 pint of water, the chopped onion, and the bay leaf.

  3. Boil the mixture for 1 hour.

  4. Chop the remaining tough parts of the clams and add them to the soft parts.

  5. Strain the mixture through a colander into a saucepan.

  6. If there is less than 1 pint of liquid, add hot water to make up the difference.

Finish and serve

  1. Bring the liquid to a boil, then add the uncooked clams and the butter.

  2. Season with salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

  3. Let it scald for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Stir in the cream and serve immediately.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavor and texture of the soup, with their soft parts and tough parts both used.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, rich flavor to the finished soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Add the uncooked clams and let them scald only briefly. Clams become tough and rubbery when overcooked, since high heat firms their proteins quickly. Adding them to the hot liquid and scalding for only 1-2 minutes keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, cream, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, cream, butter, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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