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Fried Clams

Fried clams coated in egg and crumbs, then fried in lard or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Fried Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the clams from their shells.

  2. Beat the egg well and mix in the water.

  3. Dry the clams with a towel.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the clams first in the egg mixture, then coat them in cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the clams in sweet lard or butter until golden brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Clam + breadtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Large soft-shelled clams
Provide the main ingredient, whose tender flesh cooks quickly in the hot fat.
Egg
Binds the coating so the crumbs stick to the clams and form a crisp shell.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the hot fat.
Sweet lard or butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Dry the clams with a towel. Surface moisture turns to steam in hot fat and pushes the coating off, so drying the clams helps the egg and crumbs adhere and the crust stay crisp.

“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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