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Clam Pie

A savory pie with clams, sliced potatoes, and clam juice baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease the bottom of a pan with butter.

Assemble

  1. Layer clams and sliced potatoes in the pan, repeating until full.

  2. Pour in the clam juice and add a small piece of butter.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Cover with pie crust and bake for 1.5 hours.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Butter + clamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main savory flavor and tender filling texture.
Sliced potatoes
Add starchy body and bulk that soaks up the clam juice as it bakes.
Clam juice
Adds briny flavor and moisture that keeps the filling from drying out.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crust and top brown.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and moisture while it bakes.

The step that matters

Cover with pie crust and bake for 1.5 hours. A sealed crust traps steam so the potatoes cook through and the clams stay tender rather than drying out. Baking long enough at the set temperature lets the starch soften fully, so the filling holds together when sliced.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, clam, pepper):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, clam, pepper. 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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