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Clam Fritters

Clam fritters are fried batter pieces containing chopped clams, flour, eggs, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop the clams finely and season with pepper and salt.

  2. In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together twice.

  3. Beat the eggs until light, then add the milk and clam liquor.

  4. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture.

Fry

  1. Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan until hot.

  2. Add the clams to the batter and drop spoonfuls into the hot oil.

  3. Turn each fritter as it browns on the bottom.

  4. Alternatively, fry the batter on a griddle to make pancakes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set when fried.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main body of the batter, giving the fritters their structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the fritters rise and turn light.
Clams
Provide the main flavor and chewy bits throughout the fritters.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, loosening it for spooning and frying.

The step that matters

Heat the oil until hot before adding the batter. If the oil is not hot enough, the fritters absorb excess oil and turn greasy before they set. Hot oil sears the outside quickly, so the batter holds its shape and browns evenly.

“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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