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Clam Fritters

A batter of clams, eggs, parsley, and spices fried into golden fritters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Strain the clams from the juice and chop them finely.

  2. Beat the eggs until very light.

  3. Stir in the clams, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Add the cream and gradually mix in flour until the batter is the consistency of fritters.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a pan with equal parts butter and lard.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the fritter batter into the hot fat and fry until golden.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds its shape in the fat.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the batter's texture.
Clams
Main flavour and bulk of the fritters.
Butter
Adds flavour and helps the fritters brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot fat. If the butter and lard are not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of forming a crisp, golden crust. Drop spoonfuls into properly heated fat so the outside sets quickly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, egg, pepper, nutmeg, cream, flour, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, egg, pepper, nutmeg, cream, flour, 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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