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Clam Soup

A simple soup made with water, milk, clams, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the base

  1. Pour water into a stew kettle.

  2. Add milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Add clams and butter.

  4. Cook for 2 minutes.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and gives it body and a smooth mouthfeel.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor that defines the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Add milk and bring to a boil. Milk contains milk solids and sugars that can scorch on the bottom of a kettle and boil over quickly. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring helps prevent a burnt taste and a messy spill.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, clam, butter, pepper):

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, clam, butter, 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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