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Clam Soup

A simple soup made from clams, water, and optional milk and egg, served with toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the clams finely and add the liquor to the meat.

  2. Combine the clam meat, liquor, and cold water in a clean pot.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours without boiling.

  2. Season to taste and pour into a tureen with slices of toast.

  3. If desired, beat the egg lightly, add the milk slowly, and mix well.

  4. Stir the egg and milk mixture into the soup just before serving.

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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Clam + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 meaty body of the soup.
Egg
Enriches the soup and adds body when stirred in at the end.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the broth's flavour when stirred in.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without boiling. Boiling toughens clam meat and can make the soup cloudy, while gentle simmering keeps the clams tender and the broth clear.

“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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