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Clam Toast

Clam toast topped with a simmered clam and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Chop the clams into fine pieces.

  2. Simmer the clams in enough hot water to cover them for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs and add cayenne and warmed milk.

  2. Dissolve the flour in a little cold milk and add to the mixture.

  3. Simmer all together until thickened.

Serve

  1. Pour the clam mixture over buttered toast and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 bulk of the filling.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the mixture and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, forming the base of the thickened sauce.
Flour
Helps thicken the liquid into a smooth, cohesive mixture when simmered.

The step that matters

Simmer until thickened. Egg yolks can scramble if the mixture boils or gets too hot. Keeping the heat gentle lets the yolks and flour thicken it smoothly into a creamy sauce.

“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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