Name: Clams Sauted and Creamed
Ingredients: 2 strings of soft shell clams, washed and chopped fine; 1 tablespoon butter, plus 1 heaping tablespoon butter; 1 cup milk; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Toast or crisped crackers, for serving

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 ↓

Clams Sauted and Creamed

Ingredients

2 strings of soft shell clams, washed and chopped fine
1 tablespoon butter, plus 1 heaping tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Toast or crisped crackers, for serving

Directions

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan.
Add the chopped clams and stir frequently until browned, keeping them well broken with a spoon.
Dredge the clams with 1 heaping tablespoon of butter and stir until absorbed and browned.
Gradually add 1 cup of milk, stirring until smooth and thick.
Season with salt and pepper, simmer for 5 minutes, and serve on toast or crisped crackers.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together840 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together636 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Soft shell clams: Provide the main savoury body and flavour of the dish once browned.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and browns to deepen the flavour of the clams.
Milk: Forms the creamy liquid that thickens into a smooth sauce around the clams.

The step that matters

Browning the clams. Stirring the clams until they brown, rather than just heating them, develops deeper flavour through browning reactions. Keeping them broken up gives even contact with the pan and a finer texture in the final cream.

“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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Clams Sauted and Creamed