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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with corn, potatoes, onions, bacon, milk, water crackers, and a beaten egg yolk.

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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a frying pan, cook the bacon or ham with the onions until browned.

  2. Layer the potatoes, bacon and onion mixture, corn, salt, and pepper in a saucepan.

  3. Repeat layers, finishing with corn on top.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add boiling water and simmer over moderate heat for 20 minutes.

  2. Stir in the milk.

  3. Mix the butter and flour together, then stir the mixture into the chowder.

  4. Add the broken crackers and cook for 5 more minutes.

  5. Taste and adjust seasoning.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolk 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the chowder when cooked with butter and liquid.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that help thicken the chowder as they soften.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the chowder.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour blend smoothly.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the chowder when stirred in off the heat.
Water crackers
Break down into the broth, adding body and thickening.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it boils. Removing the pot from heat before stirring it in keeps the chowder smooth and gently thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, flour, potato, milk, ham, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, flour, potato, milk, ham, butter, pepper. 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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