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Clam Soup

A creamy soup made with clams, butter, flour, milk, and eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the clams finely.

  2. In a pot, add the clam liquor and 3 quarts of water, then bring to a boil.

  3. Add the chopped clams and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. In a bowl, mix ½ cup of butter with ½ cup of flour until smooth.

  2. Stir the butter‑flour mixture into the soup along with 1 quart of fresh milk.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in 4 well‑beaten eggs.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, adding more butter for a richer flavor if desired.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 flavour and protein of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour helps thicken the soup.
Flour
Mixed with butter to thicken the soup and give it body.
Fresh milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds body.
Eggs
Stirred in off the heat to enrich and lightly thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten eggs off the heat. If the soup is too hot when the eggs go in, the egg proteins can set into curds instead of blending smoothly. Removing the pot from the heat first lets the eggs thicken the soup gently.

“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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