Name: Clams, Fried
Ingredients: large sand clams; wheat flour; 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 ↓

Clams, Fried

Ingredients

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

Directions

Wash the clams in their own liquor.
Dip each clam in wheat flour and rolled crackers.
Fry the clams in hot lard or beef dripping without adding 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).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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).
Clam + flourtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together576 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).