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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup of potatoes, corn, salt pork, onions, and milk served over crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chowder base

  1. Fry the diced salt pork in a pot until browned.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until tender.

  3. Boil the sliced potatoes in 1 quart of boiling water for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the cooked pork and onion to the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the corn and milk, and heat until just scalding.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then pour over the crackers and serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, salty flavor to the base.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the chowder with their starch.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and body, giving the chowder a smooth, creamy texture.
Fresh corn
Adds sweetness and a tender bite to the chowder.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and add body when poured over at serving.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and heat only until just scalding. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard, and over-boiling dairy thickens unevenly and can separate. Heating gently keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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