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Devilled Clams

A baked clam dish with tomato, onion, herbs, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Devilled Clams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the clams, tomatoes, onion, parsley, marjoram, and thyme very fine.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the chopped ingredients with the clams, adding salt, pepper, and bread crumbs.

  2. Add clam liquor until a thick paste forms.

Bake

  1. Place the mixture in clam shells or patty dishes.

  2. Top each with a lump of butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main savory body and briny flavor of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help the mixture bind into a thick, spreadable paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the topping brown in the oven.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity to the filling.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Adding clam liquor until a thick paste forms. Bread crumbs absorb liquid unevenly, so adding clam liquor gradually lets you judge the texture. Too much liquid makes the filling loose and soggy, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, tomato, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper, bread):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, tomato, parsley, marjoram, thyme, 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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