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Clam Pie

A savory pie made with clams, tomato sauce, potatoes, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the clams

  1. Chop the clams if large, saving the liquor.

  2. Heat the clam liquor, then strain it.

  3. Season the strained clam liquor.

  4. Cook the chopped clams in the seasoned liquor for 10 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer minced clams in a baking dish.

  2. Season the clams with salt, pepper, onion juice, butter, and strained tomato sauce.

  3. Add thin slices of boiled potatoes.

  4. Dredge each layer of clams with flour.

  5. Pour in 1 cup of clam juice.

  6. Cover with the pastry crust.

  7. Bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Clams
Provide the main savory filling and the seafood flavor of the pie.
Flour
Dredged over the layers to thicken the clam juice into a sauce.
Boiled potatoes
Add body and starchy bulk to the filling between the clam layers.
Strained tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savory depth to the clam filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the filling.
Pastry for top crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven as a crisp topping.

The step that matters

Dredge each layer of clams with flour. Flour is the thickener here. Too little leaves the juices watery, while clumps of flour can leave pockets of raw starch. Even, thin dusting between layers lets the liquid set into a cohesive sauce as the pie bakes.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pepper, onion, butter, sauce, potato, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, onion, butter, sauce, potato, flour. 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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