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Soft Clams Stewed

A savory stew of soft clams simmered in butter, clam juice, and milk, thickened with cornstarch and seasoned with pepper, salt, and optional nutmeg.

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 ↓

Soft Clams Stewed

a pint of stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Obtain soft clams that are opened and save the juice.

  2. Strain the clam juice into a chafing dish.

  3. Add butter, pepper, and salt, and bring to a boil.

Cook the clams

  1. Add the whole clams and stew gently until almost firm.

Thicken and serve

  1. Blend cornstarch with milk, using 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and ½ cup of milk for a pint of stew.

  2. Bring the stew to a brisk boil and stir in the cornstarch mixture.

  3. Boil and stir for about 2 minutes until smooth and slightly thickened.

  4. Serve immediately, adding a pinch of nutmeg or mace 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Soft clams
Provide the main body and tender texture of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the broth.
Cornstarch
Thickens the stew into a smooth, slightly thickened consistency when boiled.
Rich milk
Adds creaminess and body to the thickened stew.

The step that matters

Boiling the cornstarch mixture. Cornstarch must reach a brisk boil and be stirred for about 2 minutes to fully gelatinize and thicken. Without that heat, the stew stays thin and can taste starchy.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, butter, pepper, milk):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, pepper, milk. 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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