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Clam Soup

A soup made with clams, clam water, pump water, red pepper, milk or cream, and optional mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams thoroughly.

  2. Place the clams in a colander.

  3. Pour cold water over the clams.

  4. Boil the clams with a little water until the shells open.

  5. Pour the water into a pitcher. Let the water settle.

  6. Measure out 1 pint for the soup.

  7. Remove the clams from their shells.

  8. Cut off the hard parts.

  9. Rinse the clams in the clam water or salt water.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the clam water, pump water, and red pepper in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Skim off any scum that forms.

  4. Add the clams and milk or cream.

  5. Thicken the soup as desired.

  6. Add a pinch of mace if you like.

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 + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

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

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 flavor and texture of the soup.
Milk or cream
Adds richness, body and a mild sweetness to the broth.
Red pepper
Adds a gentle warm note to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum that forms. Scum rising as the broth heats carries impurities that can cloud the soup and taste off. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pepper, milk. 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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