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Soup

Clam Bouillon

A clear broth made from clams, water, egg whites, and crushed eggshells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clam and egg work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 337 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Clam Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Scrub the clams thoroughly.

  2. Put the clams in a large kettle with water.

  3. Cover the kettle.

  4. Cook the clams until the shells open.

  5. Drain the broth from the shells and kettle.

  6. Let the broth cool slightly.

Clarify the broth

  1. Beat the whites of 3 eggs.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites with the crushed eggshells to the broth.

  3. Set the saucepan over heat.

  4. Stir the broth constantly until it boils.

  5. Let the broth boil for about 5 minutes.

  6. Add ½ cup of cold water.

  7. Move the saucepan to a cooler spot on the range.

  8. Let the broth sit for 10 minutes.

  9. Strain the broth through cheesecloth over a colander.

  10. Reheat the strained broth before serving.

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. Clam + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Release the savory, briny flavor that makes up the broth.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated, trapping cloudy particles so they can be strained out clear.
Crushed eggshells
Add calcium-rich particles that help bind fine sediment to the egg white raft during clarification.
Cold water
Cooling the boiling broth briefly helps the coagulated egg white settle and clarify.

The step that matters

Stir the broth constantly until it boils. Stirring while heating keeps the egg whites and eggshells dispersed so they can mix through the broth and capture cloudy particles. Letting them settle or stick early can scorch the bottom and cloud the result.

“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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