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Clam Soup

A potato-based clam soup thickened with flour, flavored with clams and cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil the sliced potatoes in water until well done.

  2. Mash the potatoes and strain through a sieve.

Add the clams and cook

  1. Chop the clams finely and add them along with their juice to the soup.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly for about 15 minutes.

  3. Strain through a sieve again.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and butter to taste.

  2. Thicken with a little flour if necessary.

  3. Add warm cream or warm milk 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Potatoes
Break down when boiled and mashed to give the soup body and a thick, smooth texture.
Clams
Provide the main savory flavor and their juice adds a briny seafood taste to the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavor to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup by swelling in the hot liquid to add body.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture when stirred in warm at the end.

The step that matters

Add the warm cream or milk just before serving. Adding dairy to a boiling soup can cause it to curdle or separate, so it is stirred in warm, off the heat, just before serving.

“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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