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Deviled Clams

Deviled clams are baked clam shells filled with a mixture of chopped clams, bread crumbs, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams and place them in a dripping pan in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until they open.

  2. Remove the clams from their shells and chop them finely, reserving the liquor.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped clams, bread crumbs, reserved liquor, and pepper.

  2. Butter the clam shells and fill each with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Top each filled shell with a small piece of butter and a few more bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for about 10 minutes.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  4. Clam + breadtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together125 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main savoury filling and their briny liquor adds flavour to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Bind the chopped clams and absorb moisture, giving the filling a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Opening the clams in the oven. Clams must open fully to be removed safely and chopped; under-cooked clams stay closed and are hard to shell, while over-cooking toughens the meat, making the filling rubbery.

“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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