Name: New England Clam Chowder with Leeks and Bacon
Ingredients: 36 clams in the shell, well scrubbed; 2 Tbs. unsalted butter; 1 garlic clove, minced; 2 cups water; 1 cup dry white wine; 1/4 lb. lean bacon, rind removed, coarsely chopped; 1 leek, including tender green portions, trimmed, carefully washed and thinly sliced; 1 Tbs. all-purpose flour; 2 cups light cream; 1 lb. red potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes; 3/4 tsp. dried thyme; Freshly ground pepper, to taste; 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh chives; 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh parsley

Why it works: Garlic and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

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.

Garlic + leektop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Clove + leektop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together579 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, butter, garlic, white wine, leek, flour, cream):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, butter, garlic, white wine, leek, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Water	not in our table	0

New England Clam Chowder with Leeks and Bacon