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Clam Pie

A baked pie of clams, potatoes, pork, and biscuit topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Cut the pork into cubes and add the clam juice, water, and butter.

  2. Simmer gently for 45 minutes.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Cook the potatoes until almost tender, then add them to the clam juice.

  5. Thicken the mixture with flour rubbed smooth in a little cold water.

  6. Cut the clams into pieces and add them to the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  2. Shape the biscuit dough into small rounds and place them over the pie.

  3. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, spoonable filling as it heats.
Potatoes
Add body and starch, helping the filling feel hearty and thick.
Hard clams or quahogs
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the filling.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the simmering broth.
Biscuit dough
Forms a golden, baked topping over the filling.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour rubbed smooth in cold water. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps, because its starch granules swell unevenly. Rubbing it smooth in cold water first lets the starch disperse so the filling thickens evenly without lumps.

“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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