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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup of clams, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and pilot biscuits simmered with pork fat and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the chopped pork until crisp in a pot, then remove with a skimmer.

  2. Fry the minced onion in the pork fat until colored.

  3. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, spices tied in a bag, water, and cayenne pepper to the pot.

Simmer and finish

  1. Cook steadily for four hours.

  2. After three and a half hours, add the clams and pilot biscuits soaked in warm milk.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter mixed with browned flour five minutes before serving for extra flavor.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor and gives crisp bits for savory depth.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during long simmering, thickening the chowder and adding body.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and body that balance the rich pork fat and clams.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor and tender texture when added late.
Pilot biscuits
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they soften in milk.

The step that matters

Adding the clams late. Clams turn rubbery and tough when overcooked, so they are added near the end of the four-hour simmer to stay tender.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, onion, biscuit, pork, allspice, clove. 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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