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Clam Bouillon

A clear broth made from clams, seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clam and cream work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Clam Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the clams thoroughly.

Make the broth

  1. Cover the clams with boiling water and boil for 20 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and let the bouillon settle.

  3. Strain again and reheat the bouillon.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Serve

  1. Serve in bouillon cups topped with whipped cream.

  2. Chop a few clams finely and add to the bouillon if desired.

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 + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 recipes

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

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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
Release their juices and briny flavor into the water, forming the broth's body and taste.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a soft, cool fat layer on top of the hot broth.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture and let the bouillon settle. Straining removes sand and grit released from the clam shells, and letting the liquid settle lets remaining particles sink, so the broth stays clear.

“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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