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Clam Stew

A stew of clams simmered in milk with butter, crackers, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clam shells clean and place them in a kettle with 1 teacup of water.

  2. Steam the clams until the shells open.

  3. Remove the clams from their shells and strain the juice.

Make the stew

  1. Return the juice and clams to the kettle and bring to a boil.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, crushed crackers, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Stir well and 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-shell clams
Provide the main protein and the briny flavour of the stew.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the stew and mellows the clam flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Crackers
Thicken the stew slightly as their starch absorbs liquid.

The step that matters

Bringing the stew to a boil after adding milk. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the kettle or curdle if it boils hard. Keep the heat moderate and stir so the milk stays smooth and the stew does not catch.

“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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