Name: Clam Chowder
Ingredients: Clams; Potatoes; Onions; Butter; Milk; Salt; Pepper

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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Clean and chop the clams.
Peel and dice the potatoes and onions.
In a pot, melt butter and sauté the onions until translucent.
Add the potatoes and enough water to cover them; cook until tender.
Stir in the clams, milk, salt, and pepper; heat through without boiling.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, butter, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.