Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Clam Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the clams finely and add their liquor to the clam meat.
In a clean pot, combine the clam meat, liquor, and cold water.
Simmer
Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours without boiling.
Ensure the clam meat is well cooked, resulting in a thick broth.
Serve
Season to taste and pour into a tureen over slices of toast.
If desired, beat the egg lightly, mix with the milk, and stir into the soup just before serving.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Clam + milktop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together636 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Clam + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together337 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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 soup as their meat cooks into the broth.
- Cold water
- Forms the liquid base, extracting flavour from the clams as it simmers.
- Egg
- Optional; when stirred in, it thickens and enriches the soup slightly.
- Milk
- Optional; adds richness and softens the flavour of the broth.
The step that matters
Simmer without boiling. Boiling toughens clam meat and can make the broth cloudy, while gentle simmering keeps the clams tender and the broth clear.
“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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