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Clam Chowder

A layered stew of clams, pork, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and biscuits, seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, cloves, and tarragon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the gills from the clams and reserve the liquid.

  2. Cut the pork into small slices and layer it in the bottom of a stew pan.

Layer and cook

  1. Add a layer of sliced potatoes on top of the pork.

  2. Add a layer of chopped onions, followed by a layer of sliced or canned tomatoes.

  3. Repeat the layering process, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, and herbs.

  4. Pour the reserved clam liquid and enough water to cover the layers.

  5. Set the pan on low heat and cook until halfway done.

  6. Add the chopped clams and broken biscuits.

  7. Boil rapidly for about 25 minutes.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth and gives the chowder body.
Pilot biscuits
Break down into the broth, adding body and thickening it.
Pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding savory richness to the base.

The step that matters

Cook until halfway done before adding the clams and biscuits. Clams turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added only after the potatoes and other layers have partly cooked, then boiled briefly as directed.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pork, potato, onion, biscuit, pepper, thyme):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, potato, onion, biscuit, pepper, thyme. 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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