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Soft Clam Soup with Tomatoes

A tomato-based clam soup made with soft clams, onions, red pepper, milk, butter, and cracker dust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Soft Clam Soup with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams in cold water until free from sand, then strain the water through a fine towel.

  2. Remove the hard parts of the clams and set the soft portions aside in a cool place.

Make the broth

  1. Chop the hard parts of the clams medium fine and place them in a saucepan with the strained water, tomatoes, onion, red pepper, and salt.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly for 1 hour, then strain through a fine colander.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the strained soup to the heat, add milk, butter, cracker dust, and the reserved soft clam portions.

  2. Stir constantly until it boils, then let it boil for 1 minute.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the soup.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and sweetness that balance the rich clam flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the broth's flavor.
Cracker dust
Thickens the soup as its starch absorbs liquid during boiling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until it boils. Once milk is added, it can scorch or curdle on the bottom of the pan if left unattended. Constant stirring keeps heat even and the cracker dust dispersed so the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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