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Clam Croquettes

A fried snack of minced clams mixed with cream and clam liquor, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix minced clams with heavy cream and clam liquor.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry until golden brown and serve with Bearnaise or tartare sauce.

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. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Clam + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Cream and pepper 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

Minced clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling stay tender and creamy.
Clam liquor
Adds moisture and concentrated clam flavor to the filling.
Egg
Binds the coating so the breadcrumbs stick to each croquette.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp outer layer that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Cooling firms the cream and clam mixture so the croquettes hold their shape. Shaping a warm, loose filling often causes it to slump or split during frying.

“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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