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Steamed Oysters or Clams in Shell

Steamed oysters or clams in shell, seasoned with pepper, coarse sea salt, butter, and served with sliced lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Steamed Oysters or Clams in Shell

Ingredients

Directions

Steam

  1. Wash the oysters or clams and place them in an airtight vessel with the upper shell facing downward.

  2. Place the vessel over boiling water to steam the shellfish.

  3. Boil rapidly for 15 to 20 minutes until the shells open.

Serve

  1. Open the shells and place two oysters or clams on each half shell.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a small amount of butter.

  3. Serve with sliced lemon.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters or clams
Provide the main shellfish, which turn tender and open as they steam.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, savory coating to the shellfish.

The step that matters

Boil rapidly until the shells open. Shellfish must be fully steamed until their shells open, since closed shells may not be safe to eat. Steam needs to build inside the sealed vessel, so rapid boiling keeps the heat and moisture up for the full cooking time.

“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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