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Clams Au Gratin

A baked dish of chopped clams mixed with breadcrumbs, herbs, and broth, topped with butter and crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Clams Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Chop the hard parts of the uncooked clams.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped clams, cracker crumbs (reserve some for topping), onion, marjoram, sage, celery, cayenne, and salt.

  2. Moisten the mixture with clam broth.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill buttered shells with the mixture and sprinkle reserved crumbs and bits of butter on top.

  2. Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Marjoram + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the savory body of the filling.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the filling, giving it a soft, cohesive texture.
Clam broth
Moistens the crumbs so the filling stays tender rather than dry during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and enriches the crumb crust.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with clam broth. Crumbs need enough liquid to soften and hold the filling together; too little leaves it dry and crumbly, while too much makes it soggy and loose in the shell.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, bread, marjoram, sage, celery, pepper, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, bread, marjoram, sage, celery, pepper, butter. 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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