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Oyster or Clam Puree

A creamy seafood puree made from clams or oysters, butter, flour, milk, juice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Oyster or Clam Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shellfish

  1. Wash the oysters or clams and remove the siphon from the clams.

  2. Cook the clams or oysters until the edges curl, then chop them finely.

Make the puree

  1. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding the flour, and gradually whisking in the heated milk.

  2. Add the chopped clams or oysters and juice to the white sauce, and heat until hot.

  3. Add Worcestershire sauce just before straining.

  4. Strain the mixture and serve.

  5. If the puree is too thick, add more juice or milk.

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 + milktop 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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 or oysters
Provide the main flavour and body of the puree once chopped and blended into the sauce.
Butter
Carries flavour and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Juice
Adds moisture and shellfish flavour, and thins the puree when needed.

The step that matters

Add the Worcestershire sauce just before straining. Its flavour is delicate and heat drives off aroma, so adding it late keeps its taste noticeable in the finished puree.

“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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