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Deviled Clams

A baked clam dish filled with a mixture of clam meat, eggs, and spices, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the clams

  1. Put clams in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Grind the clams using a meat grinder.

Make the filling

  1. Add clam liquor, parsley, chopped eggs, cracker crumbs, cayenne, and salt.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill clam shells with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main savory filling and briny flavor of the dish.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Cracker crumbs
Bind the mixture and absorb moisture so the filling holds together.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and enriches the flavor.

The step that matters

Bake at 400°F until golden brown. Baking at high heat browns the bread crumb topping quickly, while the filling is heated through. Overbaking can dry the filling and toughen the clams, so watch for color rather than relying only on time.

“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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