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Clam Fritters

A fried batter of sweet milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, chopped clams, and clam liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine sweet milk, beaten eggs, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture thickens.

  3. Fold in the chopped clams and a little clam liquor.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + clamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

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

  5. Flour + clamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together576 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour 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 add structure and richness as they set in the hot lard.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to lighten it and help the fritters rise and brown.
Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a batter that holds its shape when fried.
Clams
Provide the main flavour and a chewy texture throughout each fritter.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter and helps it brown in the frying fat.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter soaks up fat and turns greasy instead of forming a crisp, golden crust. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and keeps the fritters from absorbing too much oil.

“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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