Why it works: Milk and butter 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 broth
Chop the clams finely.
Add the clams' liquor and double the amount of water to a pot.
Simmer slowly for 1 hour, skimming carefully.
Finish the soup
Add the chopped clams and cook slowly for another 30 minutes.
Add the milk, stirring gently to avoid curdling, and heat until very hot but do not boil.
Pour into a tureen and add the butter.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + milktop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together636 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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 texture of the soup, releasing savory juices as they cook.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and body to the broth, softening its flavor.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel when stirred into the hot soup.
The step that matters
Heating the milk without boiling. Milk proteins can curdle and separate when boiled or heated too hard, so the soup should be stirred gently and kept just below boiling once the milk is added.
“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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