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Clam Soup

A creamy soup made with clam juice, milk, butter, flour, salt, clams, and topped with whipped cream.

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

Prepare the clams

  1. Remove the clams from their shells as soon as they open.

  2. Place the clams in a warm spot.

  3. Chop the clams finely.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the clam juice and hot milk in a pot.

  2. Melt the butter in a separate pan.

  3. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  4. Add the roux to the clam juice and milk mixture.

  5. Stir to thicken.

  6. Add the chopped clams to the soup.

  7. Season to taste.

  8. Bring the soup to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve with a tablespoon of whipped cream on each plate.

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Clam juice
Provides the main liquid and the characteristic briny clam flavor of the soup.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and a rounded flavor to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the liquid with the butter, giving the soup a smooth, body-rich texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the clam flavor.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor and substance of the soup.
Whipped cream
Adds a cool, rich topping that softens the soup's saltiness and adds fat.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour until smooth. Flour lumps stay lumpy once added to hot liquid, so it should be fully blended into the melted butter first to form a smooth roux that thickens evenly.

“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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