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Stewed Clams

Stewed clams simmered in butter, flour, and clam liquor, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clam and butter work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 840 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stewed Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the clams from their shells and place them in a stewpan.

  2. Add equal parts of clam liquor and water to nearly cover the clams.

Stew

  1. Cook over gentle heat for 1 hour, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the butter with the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the butter mixture and pepper to the clams, cover, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

  4. Serve over toast 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. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together984 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Sand clams
Provide the main protein and the savory flavor of the stew.
Clam liquor
Adds concentrated clam flavor and savory depth to the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the stew a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Wheat flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the stew body and a silkier texture.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum during the first hour. Scum rising from the clams is impurities and proteins that cloud the broth and can taste off. Removing it as it forms keeps the stew clear and clean-flavored over the long gentle simmer.

“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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