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Deviled Clams

A creamy, baked clam dish with breadcrumbs and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Clams

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Remove clams from shells, drain, and chop finely.

  2. Heat the cream or milk until steaming.

  3. In a separate bowl, rub together the butter and flour until smooth, then add to the heated cream or milk, stirring until it thickens.

  4. Stir in the breadcrumbs, egg yolks, and parsley.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the chopped clams, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill scalloped shells with the mixture, brush with beaten egg yolk, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 briny flavour of the filling.
Flour
Thickens the cream or milk into a smooth, stable sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help bind it while setting, and brown the topping.
Cream or milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and smooths the flour into the sauce.
Dry bread crumbs
Add body to the filling and form a browned crust on top.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream or milk with the butter and flour. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid while stirring, or it stays lumpy and tastes raw. Stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce thickens evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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