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Fried Clams

Fried clams coated in egg and cracker crumbs, then deep‑fried and garnished with lemon and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fried Clams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain the clams and dry them on a soft napkin.

  2. Season the clams with a dust of paprika.

  3. Beat the eggs in a bowl until light.

  4. Place cracker crumbs in a separate deep plate.

  5. Dip each clam in the egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  6. Lay the coated clams on a large platter and refrigerate for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the clams in deep, boiling cooking fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain the clams in a colander and transfer to a hot platter.

  3. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley sprigs.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Clam + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together232 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Clam + lemontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Main protein; they are the dish itself, cooked until tender inside a crisp coating.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the clams so the coating adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns and crunches when fried.
Cooking fat
Transfers heat quickly to the coating, browning it and cooking the clams through.

The step that matters

Fry in deep, boiling fat. The fat must be hot enough to set and brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before the clams cook, so the clams can be soggy.

“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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