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Soup

Purie of Clams

A creamy clam purée made with clams, stock, onion, butter, flour, milk, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Purie of Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. If using raw clams, simmer them in white stock for 1 hour; if using canned clams, simmer for 15 minutes.

  2. Rub the clams through a sieve until only the hard parts remain.

Make the soup

  1. Fry the onion in butter, then add flour and mix well.

  2. Pour in the clam liquor and add salt, pepper, parsley, and mace.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, then dilute with milk.

  4. Slowly add the beaten egg yolks to the soup to avoid coagulation, then serve.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  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 flavour and body of the purée once rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Carries the frying of the onion and adds richness to the soup.
Flour
Cooked with the butter to form a roux that thickens the soup.
Milk
Dilutes the soup and adds creaminess and softness to the purée.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup, adding body and a smooth, velvety texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating when heated, so curdling is likely if they meet hot soup too quickly. Adding them slowly, with the soup off the boil, lets them blend in and thicken it smoothly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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