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Clam Pie

A savory pie made with clams, tomato sauce, potatoes, and a pastry crust, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the clams

  1. Chop the clams if large, saving the liquor.

  2. Heat the clam liquor and strain it.

  3. Season the strained clam liquor.

  4. Cook the chopped clams in the seasoned liquor for 10 minutes.

Assemble the pie

  1. In a baking dish, layer minced clams.

  2. Season the minced clams with salt, pepper, onion juice, and butter.

  3. Add tomato sauce and thin slices of boiled potatoes on top of the clams.

  4. Dredge each layer of clams with flour.

  5. Pour in 1 cup of clam juice.

  6. Cover with the pastry crust.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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 flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Flour
Dusted between layers to thicken the clam juice as the pie bakes.
Boiled potatoes
Add body and starch, making the filling more substantial.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the filling.
Strained tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth to the clam layers.

The step that matters

Dredge each layer of clams with flour. Flour is the thickener here. Too little leaves the juices thin and runny, while an even dusting lets starch swell in the hot liquid and bind the filling.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, onion, butter, sauce, potato, 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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