Name: Fried Hard-Shell Clams
Ingredients: large sand clams; wheat flour or rolled crackers; hot lard or beef dripping

Why it works: Wheat and beef work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 319 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Fried Hard-Shell Clams

Ingredients

large sand clams
wheat flour or rolled crackers
hot lard or beef dripping

Directions

Wash the clams in their own liquor.
Dip the clams in wheat flour or rolled crackers.
Fry the clams in hot lard or beef dripping without salt.

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.

Wheat + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together319 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Clam + beeftop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together58 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Clam + wheattop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).