Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, pork, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato 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 the base

  1. Blanch the diced pork in hot water, drain, and fry until brown in a porcelain-lined kettle.

  2. Add the shredded onion and brown it.

Simmer the chowder

  1. Remove from heat and add the sliced potatoes, salt, pepper, clam juice, and cold water.

  2. Boil until the potatoes are tender, testing with a fork.

  3. Add the solid clams.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the milk with the flour until smooth, then add to the chowder.

  2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  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

Fat pork
Renders fat that browns the onion and adds savory flavor to the base.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and give the chowder body and bulk.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the chowder becomes smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Mixing the milk and flour before adding. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps. Blending it smoothly into the cold milk first lets it disperse evenly, so the chowder thickens without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, pepper, clam, milk, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, pepper, clam, milk, flour. 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.

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes