Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Clam Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Boil the clam liquor in a pot.
Make a little drawn butter and mix it with the liquor; stir until it boils.
Chop the clams and add them to the pot.
Season with salt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and nutmeg.
Boil over low heat for one hour.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, add the hot sweet cream to the soup.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Clams
- Provide the main body and savory flavor of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel when made into drawn butter.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and a mild, creamy body to the finished soup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the seafood.
The step that matters
Adding the sweet cream just before serving. Cream can curdle or separate when held at a hard boil for long. Adding it hot at the end and not reboiling keeps the soup smooth and creamy.
“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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