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Fried Clams

Breaded clams coated in paprika and egg, fried until golden and served with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fried Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the clams and dry them on a soft napkin.

  2. Season the clams with a dust of paprika.

  3. Beat the eggs in a bowl until light.

  4. Place an abundance of cracker crumbs in another deep plate.

  5. Dip each clam in the egg, then coat thoroughly with the crumbs.

  6. Lay the coated clams side by side on a large platter and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the clams in deep, boiling fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain the clams in a colander and transfer to a hot platter.

  3. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley sprigs.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Clam + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together232 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Clam + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together152 recipes

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

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Main protein; the crumb coating and frying turn them into a crisp exterior around a tender interior.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the clams so the coating adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden, browned coating when fried.

The step that matters

Refrigerate the coated clams for 1 hour. Chilling lets the egg and crumb coating set and firm, so it sticks to the clam and is less likely to fall off in the hot fat.

“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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