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Clam Cream Soup

A creamy soup of clams, milk, cream, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the flour until well combined.

  2. Gradually add the boiling milk to the butter and flour mixture.

Flavor the broth

  1. In a separate pot, boil the celery and onion in the clam liquor.

  2. Strain the clam liquor into the milk mixture and season with pepper and salt.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir in the cream and chopped clams, then bring to a boil.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 flavor and the chewy bite of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich base when cooked with butter.
Butter
Carries flavor and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier, fuller mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiling milk to the butter and flour mixture. Adding hot liquid slowly and whisking keeps the flour dispersed, so the roux thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, milk, flour, celery, cream, butter, pepper. 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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