Why it works: Clam and meat work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
Clam Fritters
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the clams
Wash the clams well with a thin brush to remove all sand.
Place the clams in a pan in the oven until the shells open.
Remove the clam meat.
Strain the accumulated liquor, keeping it separate.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the clam meat, eggs, salt, pepper, baking powder, and clam liquor.
Add flour to thicken the mixture.
Fry
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot fat to fry, or cook on a pancake griddle.
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.
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Clam + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together36 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Clam meat
- Provides the main flavor and the bulk of each fritter.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help set the fritters as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the fritters rise and turn lighter.
- Clam liquor
- Adds moisture and briny clam flavor to the batter.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so the spoonfuls hold their shape in the fat.
The step that matters
Thickening the batter with flour. Too little flour leaves a loose batter that spreads and falls apart in hot fat, while too much makes the fritters dense. Add it gradually until the spoonfuls hold their shape.
“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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