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Clam Broth

A clear broth made from clams, water, pepper, and sea salt, served with butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Clam Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash and drain the clams.

  2. Steam the clams until the shells open easily, saving all the juice.

  3. Add enough water to the clam juice to make 1 quart.

  4. Trim off the soft part of the clams and reserve for serving with fish.

Make the broth

  1. Chop the tough portion of the clams and simmer in the broth for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the broth and add pepper and salt if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth in small bouillon cups.

  2. Serve the reserved clam portion with melted butter and lemon juice.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Clam + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavour of the broth and the meat served alongside it.
Water
Dilutes the clam juice to make the full quart of broth.

The step that matters

Steam the clams until the shells open easily. Clams that are overcooked become tough and rubbery, while under-steamed clams stay closed and hold less juice. Stopping when the shells open easily keeps the meat tender and the liquid flavourful.

“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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