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Clam Fkittees

A batter of chopped clams, milk, eggs, and flour fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Fkittees

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Chop the clams and combine them with milk, eggs, clam liquor, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Add flour gradually until you achieve a thin batter consistency.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan over high heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels before serving.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the fritters set and hold their shape when fried.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a batter that coats the clams and forms the fritter's body.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that gives the batter its thin, pourable consistency.
Clams
Supply the main flavor and chewy bits of seafood throughout each fritter.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the outside a golden, browned crust.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of browning quickly. Dropping spoonfuls into properly heated fat sears the outside so it sets and crisps.

“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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