Skip to main content
Main

Scalloped Clams

A baked dish of clams layered with butter, bread crumbs, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Scalloped Clams

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dish

  1. Butter a deep baking dish.

  2. Layer grated bread or cracker crumbs in the dish.

Layer and assemble

  1. Sprinkle with pepper and bits of butter.

  2. Add a layer of chopped clams, seasoned with butter and pepper.

  3. Repeat layers of crumbs and clams until the dish is full.

  4. Finish with a layer of crumbs topped with plenty of butter.

  5. Add 1 cup of rich milk and cover with a plate.

Bake and brown

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Remove the plate to brown the top 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Butter + clamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main savoury filling and flavour of the dish.
Grated bread or cracker crumbs
Form the layers that soak up milk and give the dish body.
Rich milk
Moistens the crumbs and clams and turns into a tender, custard-like binding as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Removing the plate to brown the top. The plate traps steam so the dish cooks through gently. Removing it lets the surface dry and brown; leaving it on leaves the top pale and soft.

“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