Skip to main content
Main

Clam Fritters

A fried batter of chopped clams, eggs, cream, and herbs.

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

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams in two waters and chop them finely.

  2. Add pepper and chopped parsley to the clams.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until very light and mix them with the clams.

  2. Stir in the cream and gradually add flour until the mixture is the consistency of fritter batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a pan with equal parts butter and lard until hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat and fry until browned.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 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 flavour and bulk of the fritter filling.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the fritters set when fried.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds its shape in the hot fat.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Butter and lard
Fry the fritters, adding flavour and browning the outside.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. The fat must be fully hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it, while cool fat lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, egg, cream, flour, 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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes