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Deviled Clams

A baked clam dish with butter, onion, tomatoes, mushroom ketchup, and breadcrumbs, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan until brown.

  2. Add the chopped onion, clams, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and paprika.

  3. Cook for 30 minutes.

  4. Stir in the mushroom catsup and bread crumbs until well combined.

Fill and bake

  1. Wash the clam shells thoroughly and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle a few crumbs on top of each, dot with butter, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood filling that is baked inside the shells.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browning when melted until brown.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that give the filling its body and flavour.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid to thicken the filling and form a crisp, browned topping.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and sweetness as it cooks down into the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the filling for 30 minutes. A long gentle cook lets the tomatoes and onion release water and concentrate, so the filling thickens rather than making the shells soggy. Stirring in the crumbs only after cooking keeps them from turning gummy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, clam, tomato, pepper, mushroom, bread, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, clam, tomato, pepper, mushroom, bread, parsley. 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.

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