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Clam Soup

A soup made from clams, water, flour, butter, milk, pepper, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Catch 30 large clams and place them in a basin.

  2. Open the clams with a knife and add 3 quarts of water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil quickly.

  4. Chop the clams finely and add them to the boiling water.

  5. Boil for 3 minutes while stirring.

Finish the soup

  1. Add 4 tablespoons of flour, 4 tablespoons of butter, and 1 pint of milk.

  2. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Remove from heat to avoid overcooking.

  4. Stir in 3 well-beaten eggs and serve.

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavor and body of the soup as the central ingredient.
Flour
Thickens the soup by swelling in the hot liquid, giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the clam flavor.
Eggs
Sets gently with the heat to add richness and further thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the eggs off the heat. Eggs scramble and curdle when overheated, leaving the soup grainy. Removing the pot from heat before adding the well-beaten eggs keeps the texture smooth and velvety.

“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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