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Clam Fritteks

Clam fritters are fried clams mixed with a batter of eggs, flour, and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Fritteks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Stew the clams in their own liquor for 15 minutes.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Drain the clams and chop them finely, removing hard portions.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sifted flour, and milk until smooth.

  2. Combine the chopped clams with the batter.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter in a pan and fry the mixture until golden brown.

  2. Garnish with parsley 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 savoury flavour and the bulk of the fritter filling.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
Sifted flour
Thickens the batter and gives the fritters body and structure.
Milk
Loosens the batter and adds moisture and richness.
Butter
Fat for frying that promotes browning and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. The batter is thin and wet, so the pan must be hot enough to set and brown the outside quickly. Frying in a cool pan lets the fritters absorb fat and turn greasy before the inside sets.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pepper, egg, flour, milk, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, egg, flour, 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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