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Clam Soup

A creamy soup made with clams, butter, flour, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the clams finely.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the clam liquor and water, then bring to a boil.

  2. Add the chopped clams and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

  3. In a bowl, mix the butter and flour until smooth, then stir into the soup.

  4. Add the fresh milk, salt, and pepper, and stir well.

  5. Reduce heat and stir in the beaten eggs until combined.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, adding more butter for a richer flavor if desired.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 seafood flavor and tender chopped texture in the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour helps thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup, giving it body when mixed with butter.
Fresh milk
Adds creaminess and body to the broth.
Eggs
Enrich and thicken the soup as they set when stirred in gently.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten eggs. Eggs can curdle or turn grainy if the soup is too hot or boiling when they go in. Reducing the heat first lets them thicken smoothly into the soup.

“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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