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Clam Stew

A stew of clams cooked in butter, flour, salt, and cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Clam Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Drain the liquor from the clams.

  2. If clams are in the shell, place them on a grill over hot coals and remove them as soon as they open, saving the juice.

Make the stew

  1. Heat the liquor in a porcelain saucepan.

  2. Stir 1 tablespoon of flour into 4 tablespoons of butter and add to the saucepan.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 pint of cream or milk; bring to a boil.

  4. Add the clams, cutting large ones in half.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Clam + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavour and texture of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the broth.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth, body-rich base.
Cream or milk
Forms the creamy liquid base, adding richness and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Bring the cream or milk to a boil before adding the clams. Dairy can scorch or curdle if it boils too hard or sits too long on heat, and overcooked clams turn tough and rubbery. Adding clams once the base is hot and then cooking briefly keeps them 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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