Name: Farcied Clams
Ingredients: clams (shells included); cayenne pepper; chopped parsley; salt (to taste)

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 ↓

Farcied Clams

Ingredients

clams (shells included)
cayenne pepper
chopped parsley
salt (to taste)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the clams by removing the meat and reserving the shells.
Mix the clam meat with plenty of cayenne pepper and chopped parsley.
Fill the reserved clam shells with the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Clam + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together232 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Clam + peppertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together952 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).