Skip to main content
Main

Deviled Clams

Deviled clams are baked clams filled with a mixture of clam meat, parsley, eggs, and crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the clams

  1. Put clams in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Grind the clams using a meat grinder.

Fill and bake

  1. Add clam liquor, parsley, hard boiled eggs, cracker crumbs, cayenne, and salt. Mix well.

  2. Fill clam shells with the mixture.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and add dots of butter on top.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 filling and the briny flavor of the dish.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a creamy texture that binds the filling.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat that melts over the top and promotes browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when baked.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. The topping browns through dry heat, and the filling needs enough time to heat through. Pulling it too early leaves the crumbs pale and the filling lukewarm, while overbaking dries the filling out.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, egg, bread, butter. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes