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Clam Broth

A broth made from clams, water, milk, butter, arrow-root, seasoned with salt and pepper, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clam liquor

  1. Strain the liquor from the clams.

  2. Heat the strained liquor to a boil.

  3. Skim off the scum and add the clams.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes.

  5. Strain again through coarse muslin back into the saucepan.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Thicken the milk

  1. Heat the milk in a separate saucepan.

  2. Stir in the butter rolled in arrow-root.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring steadily.

Serve

  1. Pour the milk mixture into a tureen.

  2. Add the clam soup on top.

  3. Serve with a teaspoon of whipped cream on each portion.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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 of the broth as they cook in the liquor.
Rich milk
Adds body and a creamy, mellow richness to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the arrow-root blend smoothly into the milk.
Bermuda arrow-root
Thickens the milk mixture so it becomes smooth and slightly velvety when boiled.

The step that matters

Boil the milk and arrow-root while stirring. Arrow-root starch swells and thickens only when it reaches a boil. Stirring steadily keeps it dispersed so it does not clump or scorch on the base of the pan.

“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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