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Clam Salad

A salad of boiled clams, potatoes, cold fish, and optional lettuce, dressed with salad dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 322 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Clam Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Boil the clams in water for 10 minutes.

  2. Reserve the broth for soup.

  3. Chop the clams coarsely.

Make the milk and egg mixture

  1. Whisk the warm milk and egg together.

  2. Heat gently without boiling.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the chopped clams in a salad bowl.

  2. Add the chopped potato and cold fish to the bowl.

  3. Optionally, add lettuce or watercress.

  4. Cover with salad dressing.

  5. Top with hard-boiled eggs if desired.

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. Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  3. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Clam + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and chewy texture of the salad.
Egg
Adds richness and body when whisked with warm milk and gently heated.
Milk
Adds creaminess and moisture to the egg mixture when heated gently.
Potato
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the salad.

The step that matters

Heat gently without boiling. Egg proteins set and can curdle or turn grainy if the milk and egg mixture gets too hot, so gentle heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the lettuce

The recipe marks lettuce as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, milk, egg, potato, fish):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, milk, egg, potato, fish. 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.

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