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Clam Puree

A creamy clam puree made with clams, flour, butter, milk, pepper, and optional Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Prepare and clean the clams as you would oysters.

  2. Cook the clams until the edges curl.

  3. Remove the siphons and chop the clams finely.

Make the puree

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth.

  3. Add the chopped clams and strained clam juice.

  4. Heat the mixture until hot.

  5. Add Worcestershire sauce if desired.

  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. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 flavour and the body of the puree once chopped.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the roux with the flour.
Milk
Makes the liquid base that the roux thickens into a smooth puree.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Adding liquid all at once to a roux can leave lumps, because the starch grains clump before they hydrate. Adding milk slowly while whisking lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken into a smooth sauce.

“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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