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Clam Pudding

A baked pudding of clams, potatoes, parsley, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Clam Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Steam the clams, saving the liquor.

  2. Butter a pudding dish and layer in sliced cold boiled potatoes.

  3. Add a layer of clams, repeating until the dish is full, finishing with potatoes.

  4. Sprinkle each layer with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

Make the sauce

  1. Thicken the clam liquor with flour and add butter.

Bake

  1. Pour the sauce over the pudding until the dish is three-quarters full.

  2. Cover and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  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 savoury flavour and the bulk of the pudding.
Potatoes
Form the starchy layers that give the pudding body and soak up the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the clam liquor into a smooth sauce that holds the layers moist.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce and dish.

The step that matters

Thicken the clam liquor with flour. Flour must be cooked into the liquid to avoid a raw, pasty taste and lumps; the sauce needs to be smooth and fully thickened before it is poured over the layers.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, parsley, flour, butter. 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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