Name: Clam Dip
Ingredients: 1 can campbell new england clam chowder soup; 1/4 cup chili sauce; 2 tablespoons finely chopped onions; 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened; 1 loaf of round bread, hollowed out and the inside cubed for dipping

Why it works: Clam and onion work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 568 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

1 can campbell new england clam chowder soup
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 loaf of round bread, hollowed out and the inside cubed for dipping

Directions

Make the dip

With electric mixer, gradually blend soup, chili sauce, and onion into cream cheese.

Serve

Serve in bread bowl or just with crackers or chips.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Clam + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together568 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream cheese + breadtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together166 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clam + breadtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together125 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Onion + breadtop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,672 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + cream cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,097 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Provides a thick, creamy base that holds the other ingredients together.
Clam chowder soup: Adds the main savory flavor and moisture to the dip.
Chili sauce: Adds tangy sweetness and a touch of color to the dip.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, sauce, cream cheese, bread):

Tomatobetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Potatobetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, sauce, cream cheese, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.