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Devilled Clams

A baked clam dish with a creamy butter‑flour‑milk sauce and egg yolks, topped with beaten egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Devilled Clams

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. Drain and chop the clams.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the flour and stir, then gradually add the milk. Cook until the mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

Fill and bake

  1. Mash the yolks of the hard boiled eggs and mix them with the clams.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, salt, and red pepper to the clam mixture.

  3. Fill baking shells with the mixture, smooth the tops, and brush with beaten egg.

  4. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  5. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood body and savory flavor of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor as the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving a creamy, moist texture.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Mashed into the mixture to enrich it and help bind the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned topping when baked.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until it thickens. The flour must be cooked with the butter and milk until thickened so the sauce is smooth and binds the filling. Undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin mixture that runs when baked.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, butter, flour, milk, egg, pepper, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, flour, milk, egg, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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