Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

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

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 pickled pork in hot water, drain, and cut into small dice.

  2. Fry the pork in a porcelain-lined kettle until browned.

  3. Add the chopped onion and brown it.

Simmer the chowder

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

  2. Return to heat and boil until the potatoes are tender.

  3. Add the solid clams and mix well.

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

Pickled fat pork
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, salty flavor to the base.
Potatoes
Provide body and starch that soften and give the chowder its hearty texture.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor and tender texture to the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the milk and broth into a smooth, creamy consistency when brought to a boil.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness, softening the chowder's flavor and texture.
Onion
Browning builds sweet, savory depth in the base before liquids are added.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into the milk. Flour clumps if added dry or unmixed; blending it smoothly into cold milk first lets starch disperse, so it thickens evenly when the chowder boils.

Swap the onion

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

  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, flour, milk. 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