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Clam Fritters

Clam fritters are small fried balls made with clams, wheat flour, eggs, sweet milk, clam liquor, and fried in lard or beef fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Remove clams from their shells.

  2. If using large clams, cut each in half.

  3. Place clams on a thickly-folded napkin.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine wheat flour, beaten eggs, sweet milk, and clam liquor. Mix until smooth and lump-free.

  2. Stir in the clams.

Fry

  1. Heat lard or beef fat in a thick-bottomed frying pan until boiling hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat and fry gently.

  3. When one side is a delicate brown, turn to cook the other side.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the fritters set firm when fried.
Wheat flour
Provides the body and structure that holds the fritters together.
Clams
Supply the main flavor and tender bits of seafood throughout the fritter.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the batter brown in the pan.
Clam liquor
Adds concentrated clam flavor and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Heat the fat until boiling hot before frying. Hot fat sears the outside of the batter quickly, so the fritters brown and form a crisp shell instead of absorbing grease and turning heavy. Gentle frying then cooks the centre through without burning the surface.

“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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