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Clam Soup

A soup made from clam liquor, clams, water, milk, butter, flour, parsley, onion, mace, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine clam liquor, boiling water, onion, and hard parts of clams in a pot over medium heat.

  2. Stir gently for 20 minutes after boiling begins.

  3. Strain the liquid and season.

  4. Return the strained liquid to the pot with finely chopped soft parts of clams and simmer for 20 minutes.

Finish the soup

  1. In another vessel, heat the milk until scalding hot.

  2. Stir in the floured butter.

  3. Cook the mixture for 2 minutes.

  4. Add the clam soup to the milk mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture into a tureen lined with split Boston crackers dipped in hot milk and buttered.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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 flavor and body of the soup.
Clam liquor
Carries the briny, savory flavor that forms the base of the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and with flour helps thicken the soup.
Onion
Adds a savory aroma that builds the flavor of the broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the floured butter for 2 minutes. Flour thickens only when heated with fat and liquid, and a short cook removes the raw flour taste. Stirring it in well helps prevent lumps in the soup.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, milk, butter, flour, parsley, onion, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, milk, butter, flour, parsley, onion, pepper. 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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