Why it works: Clam and butter work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 840 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Clam Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the clams
Wash the clams thoroughly and place them in a pot with the water over the fire.
When the clams open, remove them and chop the meat.
Add enough water to the clam broth to reduce the saltiness.
Finish the soup
Stir in the chopped clams.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, butter, and cayenne pepper.
Add this mixture to the soup.
Bring the soup to a boil.
Serve with croutons if desired.
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.
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Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Clam + flourtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together576 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Clams
- Provide the main flavor and tender meat, and release savory juices into the broth as they open.
- Flour
- Its starch thickens the broth and gives the soup body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the soup.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and butter mixture. Flour thickens only when its starch is hydrated and heated. Adding it as dry lumps can leave clumps, so it should be combined evenly before going in. Bringing the soup to a boil afterward lets the starch swell and thicken the broth.
“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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