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Curried Clams

Curried clams are clams simmered in broth with onion and curry powder, finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Curried Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the clams.

  2. Boil the chicken or veal broth with the onion.

Make the curry

  1. Season to taste.

  2. Add curry powder.

  3. Add the clams and cook until heated through.

  4. Thicken the mixture.

  5. Stir in the butter before serving.

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. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Clam + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main protein and a briny, seafood flavour to the curry.
Chicken or veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the curry flavour and moistens the dish.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, smoother mouthfeel and richer finish.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Add the clams and cook until heated through. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked, so they should be warmed just until they are heated through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, chicken, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, chicken, butter. 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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