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Clam Bisque

A creamy soup made from clams, milk, cream, and eggs, finished with a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the clam base

  1. Chop clams and place them in boiling water.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Make the milk base

  1. Heat milk, cream, baking soda, and cracker crumbs in another saucepan.

  2. Stir in butter and flour mixture (roux), boil for 1 minute.

Combine and finish

  1. Gradually pour over whipped egg yolks while beating continuously.

  2. Heat mixture in a double boiler for 2 minutes or until outer pot water boils vigorously.

  3. Season clam mixture with salt, cayenne, and parsley, then add to milk mixture in the tureen.

  4. Top bisque with stiff‑peaked egg whites.

  5. Serve by dipping ladle deep into bisque, ensuring each plate has a meringue layer.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the bisque.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard-like base, and whites form the topping layer.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the bisque its smooth texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps form the roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the roux, giving the bisque body.
Cracker crumbs
Add body and help thicken the milk base.

The step that matters

Adding the roux-thickened milk to the egg yolks. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly can scramble the yolks. Adding it gradually while beating tempers the eggs, so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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