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Clam Stew

A stew of hard-shell clams simmered in milk with butter, crackers, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Steam the clams

  1. Wash the clams and place them in a kettle with 1 cup of water.

  2. Steam the clams until the shells open.

  3. Remove the clams from their shells and strain the juice.

Finish the stew

  1. Return the clams and juice to the kettle and bring to a boil.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk, butter, crushed crackers, and season with pepper and salt if needed.

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. Milk + eggtop 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 flavor and tender meat that forms the body of the stew.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Crackers
Starch from the crushed crackers thickens the milk and gives the stew body.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the kettle or curdle if it boils hard. Keep the heat moderate once the milk is added, and stir so the proteins do not stick or separate.

“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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