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Clam Pie

A savory pie made with clams, boiled potatoes, and a crust, baked with clam liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the clams in their own liquor in a saucepan, adding a little water if necessary.

  2. Once cooled, cut the boiled potatoes into small pieces.

  3. Line the baking dish with pie crust.

Assemble the pie

  1. Layer the clams and potatoes alternately.

  2. Season the layers with salt, pepper, butter, and a light sprinkling of flour.

  3. Place an inverted teacup in the center of the dish, pushing the mixture aside.

  4. Pour the clam liquor over the layers, adding water if it seems dry.

  5. Cover the pie with pie crust.

  6. Make incisions in the crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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

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

  2. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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 bulk of the filling, released as savoury liquor that moistens the layers.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the filling and absorbs the clam liquor as it bakes.
Flour
Lightly dusted over the layers to help thicken the juices into a looser sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps browning of the crust.

The step that matters

Placing the inverted teacup. The teacup holds open a central vent so steam can escape. Without it, trapped steam can lift or split the crust and make the filling watery.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

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