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Clam Fritters

A batter of eggs, cream, clam water, baking powder, salt, clams, and flour fried into golden fritters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Clam Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the cream and clam water.

  2. Add the baking powder and salt, then stir in the chopped clams.

  3. Gradually add flour until you achieve a medium batter consistency.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan until very hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil.

  3. Fry 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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Cream + clamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Clam + flourtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together576 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the fritters light and puffed.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape in the hot oil.
Chopped clams
Supply the main flavour and texture of the fritters.
Thin cream
Adds richness and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Frying in very hot oil. If the oil is not very hot, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Hot oil sets the outside quickly, so the fritters brown and stay light inside.

“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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