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Clam Pie

A savory pie made with clams, bacon, potatoes, garlic, cream, Worcestershire sauce, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,517 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Clam Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cook clams whole in sufficient water for 2.5 hours over low heat.

  2. Make a pie crust as for chicken pie and line a baking pan.

Assemble

  1. Layer clams, sliced potatoes, and seasoning in the pan.

  2. Cut bacon into strips and spread on top.

  3. Pour clam liquor over the layers, add ½ cup cream, and enough flour to thicken slightly.

  4. Cover with the top crust and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 45 minutes.

Brown and serve

  1. Wash the top with cream and return to the oven for 1 minute to brown.

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. Potato + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavor and, with their liquor, the savory base of the filling.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, soaking up liquid to give the filling substance.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor as it renders into the layers.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the filling set with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the poured liquid so the filling holds together rather than running.

The step that matters

Thickening the liquid with flour. Flour must be stirred into the clam liquor and cream so it dissolves evenly; otherwise it clumps and the filling stays thin or grainy once baked.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, potato, garlic, cream, pepper, sauce, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, garlic, cream, pepper, sauce, flour. 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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