Name: Plain Clam Soup
Ingredients: 100 clams, well washed; 1 quart water or 1 quart milk; 2 tablespoons butter, rolled in flour; 1 large bunch parsley, tied up; 1 tablespoon whole pepper; Flour for dumplings; Butter for dumplings; Toasted bread, cut into small squares or dice

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Plain Clam Soup

Ingredients

100 clams, well washed
1 quart water or 1 quart milk
2 tablespoons butter, rolled in flour
1 large bunch parsley, tied up
1 tablespoon whole pepper
Flour for dumplings
Butter for dumplings
Toasted bread, cut into small squares or dice

Directions

Prepare the clams

Put the clams into a large pot of boiling water to open their shells.
Remove the clams as they open and extract the meat, saving the liquor.

Make the soup

Mix the liquor with 1 quart of water or milk and thicken with butter rolled in flour.
Add the bunch of parsley and whole pepper to the pot over moderate heat.
Make small round dumplings from flour and butter, about the size of a hickory nut.
Add the dumplings to the soup and bring to a boil.
After boiling for 15 minutes, add the clams and cook until done.
Remove the parsley before serving and add toasted bread to the soup.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together840 recipes

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

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 flavor and meat of the soup.
Butter: Enriches the broth and, rolled in flour, thickens it.
Flour: Thickens the broth with butter and forms the dumplings.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread):

Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Cinnamonfits less well
Marjoramfits less well

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