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Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, onions, potatoes, milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 clams

  1. Boil the clams in water until they open.

  2. Remove the clams from their shells and chop them.

Make the chowder

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion until translucent.

  2. Add the potatoes and enough water to cover them; cook until tender.

  3. Stir in the chopped clams and milk; heat through.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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 chewy texture in the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that helps thicken the chowder as they cook.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the broth.
Butter
Carries flavor from the onion and adds richness to the base.
Onion
Builds a sweet, savory aromatic base when sautéed in butter.

The step that matters

Heat through after adding the milk. Once milk is added, keep the chowder warm rather than boiling it hard, since high heat can cause milk proteins to curdle and make the texture grainy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, milk, 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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