Skip to main content
Main

Clam Croquettes

A fried appetizer of minced clams mixed with cream and clam liquor, coated in egg and breadcrumbs.

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

Why it works: Clam and cream work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Clam Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix minced clams with heavy cream and clam liquor.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each croquette in egg, then roll in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry until golden brown and serve with Bearnaise or tartare sauce.

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. Clam + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Clam + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Minced clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and creamy.
Clam liquor
Adds concentrated clam flavor and moisture to the filling.
Egg
Acts as a binder so breadcrumbs stick to the croquettes.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. Cooling firms up the cream-based filling so the croquettes hold their shape. Shaping a warm, soft mixture can lead to croquettes that slump or break open in the hot oil.

“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.

You might also like

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