Name: Quohogs Clam Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pint quohogs, chopped fine; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon baking powder; a little salt; flour, as needed; butter, for seasoning; pepper, for seasoning

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Quohogs Clam Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine chopped quahogs, eggs, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add just enough flour to bind the mixture together.

Fry and serve

Heat a griddle or frying pan with hot fat.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the griddle or into the hot fat.
Fry until golden brown, then season with butter and pepper.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Quahogs (in the method): Provide the main clam flavour and the chopped body of the cakes.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help set the cakes as they cook.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
Flour: Gives enough body to hold the mixture together so it can be fried.

The step that matters

Add just enough flour to bind the mixture together. Too much flour makes the cakes dense and tough, while too little leaves them falling apart in the hot fat. Add it gradually until the mixture just holds its shape.

“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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Quohogs Clam Cakes