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Clam Bake

A traditional coastal cooking method where clams, corn, and seaweed are cooked over hot stones.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Clam and corn work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 40 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Clam Bake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hearth

  1. Create a circular hearth in the sand using large flat stones.

  2. Build a fire on the stones until they are red hot.

Layer and cook

  1. Place a layer of seaweed on the hot stones.

  2. Add a layer of clams about 3 inches thick on top of the seaweed.

  3. Cover the clams with more seaweed.

  4. Top with a layer of green corn in the husk.

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. Clam + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Clam + seaweedtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11 recipes

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

  3. Corn + seaweedtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main protein, which steams open in the trapped heat and seaweed.
Green corn
Cooks in its husk by steaming, becoming sweet and tender in the rising moisture.
Seaweed
Holds moisture and shields food from direct heat, so the clams and corn steam gently.

The step that matters

Building the layers on the hot stones. Seaweed must sit between the food and the stones so the clams steam rather than scorch. Stones should be fully red hot first, so the heat is steady enough to cook the thick clam layer through.

Swap the seaweed

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Seaweedthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, corn. 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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