Name: Fried Clams
Ingredients: large soft-shell clams; 1 beaten egg; powdered cracker or bread crumbs; sweet lard or butter (or both mixed)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Clams

Ingredients

large soft-shell clams
1 beaten egg
powdered cracker or bread crumbs
sweet lard or butter (or both mixed)

Directions

Dry the clams in a napkin.
Dip each clam in the beaten egg.
Coat the clam with powdered cracker or bread crumbs.
Fry the clams in sweet lard or butter, or a mixture of both.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together840 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Clam + breadtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together125 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).