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Deviled Clams

A baked clam dish filled with suet, beef, onions, tomatoes, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet and beef finely.

Make the filling

  1. Fry the suet in a pan until melted.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until nicely browned.

  3. Stir in the beef and cook until browned.

  4. Add the clams and canned tomatoes, then season with salt, pepper, and thyme.

  5. Cook thoroughly, then fill clam shells with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle chopped toast crumbs on top.

  2. Return to the oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Melts to add fat, giving the filling richness and a moist, savoury body.
Beef
Provides the meaty bulk and structure of the filling as it browns.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavour and tender texture within the filling.
Onions
Browning adds sweetness and savoury depth to the filling.
Canned tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, balancing the rich fat and meat.
Toast crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping when baked.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and beef. Browning through the Maillard reaction builds deep savoury flavour. Pale, steamed onions or meat taste flat, so the pan needs enough heat and room to brown rather than steam.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clam, onion, tomato, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clam, onion, tomato, pepper. 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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