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Puree of Clams

A thick clam puree made with clams, butter, flour, cream, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clam broth

  1. Drain the clams, saving the water, and strain it.

  2. Put the clam liquor in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. When it comes to a boil, skim off any foam.

  4. Chop the clams finely and add them to the boiling liquor.

  5. Boil and skim again.

Thicken and finish

  1. Rub the butter and flour together until smooth.

  2. Add to the broth along with the bread crumbs.

  3. Stir and cook until thickened.

  4. Press the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Return it to the kettle, and heat it.

  6. Add the previously heated cream.

  7. Do not let the soup boil after adding the cream to prevent curdling.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour 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 body of the purée, with their liquor forming the base.
Butter
Adds richness and, combined with flour, helps form a smooth thickened base.
Flour
Thickens the broth as it cooks, giving the purée its body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
Bread crumbs
Add body and help thicken the purée as it cooks.

The step that matters

Do not let the soup boil after adding the cream. Boiling cream-enriched soup can cause the dairy to curdle, leaving a grainy, separated texture. Keeping it hot but below a boil keeps the purée smooth.

“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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