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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the clams
Remove clams from their shells, preserving the liquor.
Strain the liquor and add it to a pot with 1 quart of milk and 1 quart of water.
If using large clams, cut each in half and add them to the pot.
Cook and finish
Cook over moderate heat for about 1 hour until clams are tender.
Skim the surface to remove any impurities.
Add the crushed crackers and cover the pot for 10 minutes.
Stir in the sweet butter and serve hot.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together840 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + milktop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 flavor and tender, chewy meat that gives the soup its body.
- Milk
- Adds richness, creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.
- Soda crackers or butter crackers
- Thicken the soup as their starch absorbs liquid and softens.
- Sweet butter
- Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and buttery aroma.
The step that matters
Cook over moderate heat until the clams are tender. Gentle heat keeps the milk from scorching or boiling over and lets the clam meat become tender without toughening. Too much heat makes the clams rubbery and can curdle the milk.
“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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