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Deviled Clams

Deviled Clams are clams stuffed with a buttery breadcrumb mixture, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the chopped clams, soaked bread crumbs, sweet marjoram, red pepper, black pepper and chopped onion to the pan.

  3. Cook the mixture until it thickens.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Fill and fry

  1. Fill the clam shells with the mixture.

  2. Dip each filled shell in egg.

  3. Coat each shell with bread crumbs.

  4. Fry the shells in deep boiling lard until golden brown.

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. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 body and savory seafood flavor of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk and bind the filling, giving it a moist, soft texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the filling.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it cooks down.
Egg (in the method)
Coats the shells so the crumb crust sticks and helps it brown.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until it thickens. The filling must be cooked enough to thicken and cool firm; if it stays loose, it will leak out of the shells and make the coating soggy when fried.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

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