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Clam Soup with Poached Egg

A clam soup thickened with roux, topped with poached egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Soup with Poached Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Clean and pick over the clams, reserving the liquor and using ¾ cup of water.

  2. Chop the hard parts of the clams finely and set aside the soft parts.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the sliced onion until soft.

  2. Add the flour and stir to make a roux, then gradually add the reserved clam liquor and water.

  3. Stir in the milk and bring to a simmer.

  4. Add the chopped clams and season with salt and pepper.

Poach and serve

  1. In a separate pot, poach the egg whites in simmering water until set.

  2. Serve the soup hot, topped with the poached egg whites.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and texture of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the butter and onion base into a roux that gives the soup body.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and forms the base for the roux.
Egg whites
Poached until set, they form soft, tender pieces that top the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the butter and onion. Flour must be stirred into the melted butter to form a roux before liquid goes in. Cooking it briefly removes raw starch taste and lets the flour thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, flour, butter, egg, milk, 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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