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Clam Fritters

A fried batter of clams, flour, milk, and eggs cooked in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Add sweet milk and clam liquor, mixing well.

  3. Stir in beaten eggs and chopped clams until smooth.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan until boiling hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard and cook slowly.

  3. When one side is browned, turn the fritters to brown the other side.

  4. Alternatively, cook the batter on a griddle like pancakes.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Clam + flourtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together576 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Clams
Provide the main flavor and texture, with their liquor adding moisture and brininess to the batter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the batter so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, giving the fritters a light, puffed texture.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps browning through milk sugars.

The step that matters

Frying the fritters in hot lard. The lard must be boiling hot before the batter goes in, so the outside sets and browns quickly. Cooking too cool lets the fritters absorb grease and turn heavy. Cooking slowly then lets the centre cook through without burning the outside.

“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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