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Clam Pie

A savory pie with salt pork, onion, potatoes, clams, and a flour-based crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Fry diced salt pork in a skillet until the fat is rendered and just before it colors.

  2. Add the chopped onion to the skillet.

  3. Add diced potatoes, boiling water, and black pepper to the skillet.

  4. Cover and cook until the potatoes are almost tender.

  5. Remove the skillet from heat.

  6. Stir in the clams and their strained juice.

  7. Pour the mixture into a well-greased deep dish.

Make the crust

  1. In a bowl, mix and sift the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub in the lard until crumbly.

  3. Add milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Roll the dough out to ½ inch thick.

Bake the pie

  1. Cover the pie with the dough.

  2. Brush the dough with milk.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 35 minutes.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 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

Salt pork
Renders fat that flavors the filling and helps cook the onion and potatoes.
Raw potatoes
Add starch and bulk, becoming tender and thickening the filling as they cook.
Raw clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the filling.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough, setting firm as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the crust rises and becomes light.
Lard
Rubbed into flour to tenderize the crust and keep it flaky.

The step that matters

Rub in the lard until crumbly. Lard coats flour particles and limits gluten formation, so the crust stays tender and flaky rather than tough. Stopping when the mixture is crumbly keeps the fat in distinct pieces.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, pepper, clam, flour, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, pepper, clam, flour, milk. 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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