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Manhattan Clam Chowder II

A hearty clam chowder with clams, salt pork, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, and herbs, served with soda crackers.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Manhattan Clam Chowder II

Time1½ hours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Strain the clam juice.

  2. Put the clams through a food chopper, using the coarse blade.

  3. Fry salt pork in a heavy iron pot.

  4. Remove the pork.

  5. Sauté onions in the fat until tender and lightly browned.

  6. Add tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.

Simmer the chowder

  1. Add water, carrots, celery, and herbs.

  2. Cover the pot and gently simmer for 1½ hours.

  3. Add clams, strained clam juice, and potatoes.

  4. Cook until potatoes are tender.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  6. Bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Pour over crumbled soda crackers in individual plates.

  2. Serve at once.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1116Calories
72 gProtein
16 gFat
170 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 15 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Shrimp100g cooked99
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and chewy texture in the chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavour into the onions and the rest of the pot.
Onions
Browning in the rendered fat builds sweetness and savoury depth for the base.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body that give the broth its characteristic red colour.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the broth slightly with their starch.
Soda crackers
Crumbled into the bowls, they absorb broth and add body to each serving.

The step that matters

Gently simmer the pot. A gentle simmer keeps the long-cooked broth from boiling hard, which would toughen the clams and break down the vegetables unevenly. Slow heat lets flavours blend without scorching the tomatoes on the base of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, celery, parsley, pork, thyme, tomato, potato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, celery, parsley, pork, thyme, tomato, 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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