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Clam Fritters

Clam fritters are small fried balls made with clams, flour, eggs, milk, and clam liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Remove the clams from their shells. If using large clams, cut each in half.

  2. Place the clams on a thickly folded napkin.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the wheat flour, beaten eggs, sweet milk, and clam liquor.

  2. Beat the batter until smooth and free from lumps, then stir in the clams.

Fry

  1. Heat plenty of lard or beef fat in a thick-bottomed frying pan until boiling hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot fat and fry gently.

  3. When one side is a delicate brown, turn the fritters to cook the other side.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Forms the batter's body, giving the fritters structure once cooked.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firmly when fried.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
Sand clams
Provide the main flavour and tender pieces throughout the fritter.
Lard or beef fat
Conducts heat for frying and browns the outside of the fritters.

The step that matters

Frying in very hot fat. The fat must be boiling hot so the batter sets and browns quickly on contact. Fat that is not hot enough lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy and pale, while gentle frying then lets the centre cook through without burning the outside.

“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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