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Pickled Clams

Clams preserved in cider vinegar with pepper and pimento.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Pickled Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams and place them in water.

  2. Boil the clams until they cleave from their shells, then remove them.

  3. Place the clams in a glass jar.

Pickle

  1. Boil the pepper and pimento in the cider vinegar.

  2. Let the vinegar mixture cool, then pour it over the clams in the jar.

  3. Cork the jar tightly.

  4. The clams will be ready to use in one day.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + cidertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,234 recipes

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

  4. Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 recipes

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

  5. Clam + vinegartop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main body of the dish, which firms slightly as it is boiled and then steeped in vinegar.
Cider vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves and sharpens the clams as they pickle.
Unground pepper
Adds pungent, aromatic heat to the pickling liquid.
Pimento
Adds a mild, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Boiling the clams only until they cleave from their shells. Overcooking toughens clam meat, making it rubbery, while undercooking leaves the shells hard to release. Stopping at the point the shells open keeps the texture tender before the clams go into the acidic brine.

“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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