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Bisque of Clams

A creamy soup made from clams, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Bisque of Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Boil the clams in their juice for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain the clams.

  3. Chop the clams.

  4. Pound the clams.

Make the bisque

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Add the clams, clam juice, milk, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  4. Stir constantly until just before boiling.

  5. Remove from heat and strain.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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 flavor and body of the bisque.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor as the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk and clam liquid into a smooth, velvety base.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that gives the bisque its smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until just before boiling. Milk-based soups can scorch on the bottom or separate if overheated, and the flour-thickened base can form lumps if not stirred. Constant stirring and stopping just short of a boil keep the texture smooth and creamy.

“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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