Skip to main content
Main

Clam Pie

A savory pie made with clams, potatoes, butter, salt, pepper, flour, and liquid, baked with a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams and potatoes

  1. Chop large clams and place them in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the clams in their own liquor, adding a little water if necessary.

  3. Boil the potatoes until done, then slice them.

Assemble the pie

  1. Line a pudding dish halfway up its sides with potato slices.

  2. Turn a small cup bottom up in the middle of the dish to support the top crust.

  3. Layer clams and potatoes in the dish, seasoning with butter, salt, and pepper, and dredging with flour. Repeat layering until the dish is filled.

  4. Add the clam cooking liquid and more water if needed, ensuring enough liquid for a meat pie.

Bake

  1. Cover with a top crust, cut steam vents, and bake for 30 minutes.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Clam + potatotop 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

Clams
Provide the main filling and savory seafood flavor as they cook in their own liquor.
Potatoes
Form the layered base and body of the filling, absorbing flavor and adding bulk.
Flour
Dusted between layers, it thickens the cooking liquid into a silky, sauce-like filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the filling taste rounded.

The step that matters

Add the cooking liquid before baking. Flour thickens only when it meets enough liquid and heat. Too little liquid leaves the filling dry and pasty, so the clam liquor and water must cover the layers before the crust goes on.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, butter, pepper, flour):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes