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Clam Stew

A stew of clams, flour, butter, milk or cream, and crushed crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Open the clams and save the liquor.

  2. Cut each clam into four or five pieces.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, bring the clam liquor to a boil and skim off any foam.

  2. In a bowl, rub the flour smooth with the butter.

  3. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the boiling clam liquor to prevent lumps.

  4. Boil for 2 minutes.

  5. Add the hot milk or cream and crushed crackers.

  6. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clam + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together636 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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 body and seafood flavour of the stew.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a light, smooth stew base.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flour, helping it blend smoothly.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture, richness and a mild sweetness to the stew.
Crushed crackers
Add body and slightly thicken the stew as they soften.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the flour mixture into the boiling clam liquor. Flour clumps when it hits hot liquid all at once. Adding the butter-flour paste slowly while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly, so the stew thickens smoothly without lumps.

“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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