Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Clam Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the clams
Wash the clam shells.
Put clams in a kettle with water and cook until the shells open.
Remove clams from shells and strain the juice.
Make the stew
Bring the clam juice to a boil, then add milk, butter, pepper, salt, and crushed crackers.
Fry the clams
To fry clams, dry them, roll in beaten egg and cracker crumbs, and fry in hot lard.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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 stew, releasing savoury juice as they open.
- Milk
- Adds richness and creaminess, softening the broth into a smooth stew.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished stew.
- Crackers
- Crushed crackers thicken the broth slightly and add body.
The step that matters
Bring the clam juice to a boil, then add milk. Boiling clam juice before adding milk matters because dairy can curdle or scorch if added to a rapidly boiling liquid. Adding milk after the juice is hot but not boiling keeps the stew smooth.
“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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