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Clam Broth

A simple broth made from clams, water, and seasonings, served hot with toast or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clam and butter work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 840 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Scrub the clams well in cold water to remove sand.

Cook the broth

  1. Place the clams in a saucepan and cover with boiling water.

  2. Boil for about 15 minutes, or until all the clams open.

  3. Remove the shells and chop the clams finely.

  4. Skim the broth and return the chopped clams to it.

Season and serve

  1. Season with butter or cream, pepper, and salt as needed.

  2. Serve hot in a cup with toast or crackers.

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

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

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

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

  3. Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 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

Clams in the shell
Provide the main flavor and the body of the broth as they release their juices while cooking.
Butter or cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil only until the clams open. Overcooking toughens clam meat, making it rubbery, while the broth's flavor is drawn out during cooking. Stopping once the shells open keeps the chopped clams tender.

“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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