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Clam Soup

A creamy soup made with clams, milk, butter, flour, onions, and parsley.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash and brush the clams well.

  2. Place them in a steamer or a large saucepan with just enough water to prevent the bottom layer from burning.

  3. Steam the clams until they open, then remove from heat.

  4. Strain the clam broth and set aside.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking for 2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the milk and clam broth, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Add the chopped onions, parsley, and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Finally, add the steamed clams and heat through before serving.

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. Onion + parsleytop 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 flavor and texture of the soup, and are added at the end to heat through.
Butter
Melts with the flour to form the roux that begins the thickened base.
Flour
Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the soup as the liquid is added.
Milk
Makes up most of the liquid, giving the soup a creamy body when thickened.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the milk and clam broth. Adding liquid slowly while stirring constantly keeps the roux smooth; dumping it in at once can leave lumps of flour that do not dissolve evenly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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