Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bisque of Clams
1½ pints of soupIngredients
Directions
Cook the clams
For 1½ pints of soup, take 1 dozen large clams, stew them 15 minutes in their own liquor, adding water to make three gills.
Make the white sauce
Boil 3 gills of cream or rich milk.
Stir 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour in a small saucepan until it bubbles.
Then pour the boiling milk in, stirring all the time.
Combine and finish
Stand aside, squeeze each clam with a lemon squeezer and you will find only an empty skin remains.
Strain clams and liquor into the white sauce already made, pressing as much juice out as possible.
Stir well, bring all to a boil and remove from the fire.
While you beat the yolk of an egg with 2 tablespoons of the soup stir to rest and season to taste.
Take care that the soup is boiling when the egg is added, but does not boil afterward.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Soup | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Clams (in the method)
- Release their savory liquor, which becomes the flavorful base of the soup.
- Cream or rich milk
- Adds richness and body, forming the liquid of the white sauce.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
- Butter
- Carries fat and flavor into the flour mixture to start the sauce.
- Egg yolk (in the method)
- Enriches and thickens the soup when stirred in off the boil.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolk. Egg proteins set when heated and can curdle or turn grainy if the soup boils after the egg goes in. Add it while the soup is boiling, then keep it from boiling again so the bisque stays smooth and silky.
“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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