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Clam Soup

A soup made from clams, milk, eggs, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clam shells thoroughly with a fine brush to remove all sand.

  2. Place the shells in a 400°F (200°C) oven until they open.

  3. Extract the meat and chop it finely.

Make the broth

  1. Heat the clam liquor and any contents from the pan until boiling.

  2. Add the chopped clams and remove any scum that forms.

  3. Stir in butter, pepper, and a little salt.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler, reserving ½ cup.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix them into the reserved cold milk.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk and pour into a tureen.

  4. Add the boiled clams, which should have cooked for no more than 5 minutes.

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  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 flavour and the chopped meat that gives the soup its body.
Eggs
Thicken the hot milk gently as they set, giving a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that carries the clam flavour and holds the eggs.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savoury mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the boiling milk. Eggs set when heated, so they can curdle if they meet very hot liquid unevenly. Diluting them in cold milk first and stirring steadily helps them blend into a smooth, thickened soup.

“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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