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Clams with White Beans, Fennel and Broccoli Rabe

Tender, sweet Manila clams take only minutes to cook. Here, they’re augmented by fresh fennel, saffron and red pepper flakes for a sophisticated dish. Serve with crusty bread brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with black pepper.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and clam work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 74 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2.

Ingredients

Contains: shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. White wine + clamtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together74 recipes

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

  2. Fennel + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Beans + broccolitop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Olive + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + saffrontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fennel, olive, pepper, white wine, beans, clam, saffron):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fennel, olive, pepper, white wine, beans, clam, saffron. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).