Skip to main content
Main

Clam Soup

A soup made from clams, butter, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash clams thoroughly, scrubbing with a brush. Put clams into a kettle. Add ¼ cup water. Cover and steam until shells open slightly.

  2. Remove clams from shells. Separate soft from hard parts. Chop hard parts.

Make the soup

  1. Add clam liquor and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

  2. Strain through double thickness of cheesecloth.

  3. Add butter. Add soft parts of clams. Add cracker dust. Add seasonings. Heat very hot, but do not allow to boil.

Serve

  1. Turn into a tureen and add milk. Serve immediately.

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

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

  3. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 flavor and the body of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, giving the soup its body.
Crackers
Thicken the broth slightly as they soak up liquid.

The step that matters

Heat very hot, but do not allow to boil. Boiling after the milk and butter are added can curdle the milk and make the soup grainy. Keeping it hot but below a boil keeps it 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.

More clam soup recipes

Mock 5Philadelphia 3 See all 191 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes