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Mixed-Vegetable Chowder

A hearty chowder made with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, green pepper, onion, bacon, and skim milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mixed-Vegetable Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bacon or pork, onion, and green pepper finely.

  2. Cook the mixture in a pot for about 5 minutes.

  3. Add water and tomatoes to the pot.

  4. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Cook the potatoes and carrots

  1. Cut the potatoes and carrots into small pieces.

  2. Cook the potatoes and carrots in water until tender.

  3. Drain the potatoes and carrots.

Finish the chowder

  1. Add the drained potatoes and carrots along with the skim milk to the pot.

  2. Thicken the chowder with flour mixed with a little cold milk.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide starchy bulk that softens and gives the chowder body.
Salt pork or bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the base as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the chowder becomes creamy rather than watery.
Skim milk
Adds creaminess and a milky body to the finished chowder.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Thicken the chowder with flour mixed with a little cold milk. Flour clumps if it hits hot liquid directly. Mixing it into cold milk first lets the starch disperse evenly, so the chowder thickens smoothly instead of becoming lumpy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, carrot, milk, flour, pork, tomato, 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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