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Clam Bouillon

A broth of clams simmered in water, butter, salt, pepper, garnished with parsley and whipped cream, served with crackers or toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Clam Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Scrub and rinse the clams thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Place the clams in a kettle with hot water and cook until the shells open.

  3. Drain and strain the broth, returning it to the kettle.

  4. Remove the clams from their shells and chop them finely.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chopped clams to the hot broth and season with butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes and serve in cups on plates.

  3. Garnish with minced parsley and a tablespoon of whipped cream on top.

  4. Serve with crackers or cubes of toasted bread.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Little neck clams
Provide the main flavour and the savoury broth they release as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Cook the clams only until the shells open. Clams that stay in the heat too long turn tough and rubbery, and overcooking also makes the broth taste harsher. Stop as soon as the shells open.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, pepper, cream, bread. 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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