Skip to main content
Main

Clams

A hearty stew of clams, potatoes, tomatoes, and pork simmered with herbs and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into small dice-shaped pieces.

  2. Rinse the potatoes again and drain them.

  3. In a 3-quart stewpan, add the potatoes and 2 quarts of cold water.

  4. Chop the onion finely and add it to the pan.

  5. Chop the parsley and celery finely, then add them to the stewpan.

Make the stew

  1. Season with a pinch of coarse sea salt and 1 tablespoon of bitter.

  2. Cook on a brisk fire until the potatoes are nearly done, about 18 minutes.

  3. Cut the pork into ½ inch square pieces and fry them for 4 minutes.

  4. Add the pork and ½ teaspoon of thyme to the broth.

  5. Scald the tomatoes, peel them, and cut them into small pieces.

  6. Add the tomatoes to the stewpan.

  7. Open the clams and place them in a bowl, reserving ½ cup of their juice.

  8. Cut each clam into four pieces.

  9. Add the clam pieces and the reserved juice to the stewpan.

  10. Stir gently to prevent burning and cook for 2 minutes.

  11. Season with ¼ teaspoon of black pepper and 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starchy body that thickens the broth as it cooks and gives the stew its substance.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender chewy texture in the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the stew, carrying flavour and a smooth mouthfeel.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavour, and moisture that blends into the broth.
Pork
Adds savoury, meaty flavour and fat to the broth as it fries and simmers.

The step that matters

Add the clams and stir gently. Clams turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, and the stew can scorch on the bottom. Adding them near the end, with gentle stirring and only a short cook, keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, potato, parsley, celery, pork, thyme, tomato):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Okrafits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, potato, parsley, celery, pork, thyme, tomato. 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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes