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Clam Pie

A pie filled with raw clams, pepper, butter, and baked with a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Pie

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.

Assemble

  1. Line a deep plate with a pie crust.

  2. Place the raw clams and their juice in the crust.

  3. Add pepper and butter.

  4. Dust flour over the top and cover with a second pie crust.

  5. Decorate the top with pastry cut into shell shapes.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Do not let the crust soak.

  3. Serve garnished with celery.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Raw clams
Provide the main filling, and their juice adds moisture and flavour to the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, which carries flavour and helps the filling taste rounded.
Flour
Dusted over the filling, it thickens the clam juice as the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Do not let the crust soak. Raw clams release liquid as they cook. If the bottom crust soaks it up before baking, it turns soft and soggy instead of crisp, so the filling should be sealed in promptly and baked without delay.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, butter, flour. 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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