Name: Clam Soup— Cream of Clams
Ingredients: clams; water; cream; chopped parsley or celery leaves; salt

Why it works: Clam and parsley work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 232 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Clam Soup— Cream of Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams by cleaning and removing any grit.
In a pot, combine clams and water, and simmer until clams are cooked.
Strain the liquid and return it to the pot.
Add cream to the clam broth and heat gently.
Serve in bowls, garnished with chopped parsley or celery leaves.
Do not let the soup boil after adding the cream to avoid curdling.

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.

Clam + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together232 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Clam + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream + parsleytop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,392 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).