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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup of clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, butter, milk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and clam match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 305 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: egg yolk, egg

Directions

Prepare the clams and broth

  1. Wash clams thoroughly with a brush.

  2. Put clams in a kettle with 2 quarts boiling water.

  3. When shells open, remove the clams from them; cut in small pieces.

Make the chowder

  1. Chop 2 slices of salt pork very finely and fry until brown.

  2. Put a little of the fried pork in the bottom of a pot.

  3. Add successive layers of sliced onions, sliced potatoes, and clams.

  4. Pour in clam liquor and add sufficient water to cover them; season with cayenne pepper and a little salt.

  5. Cook until potatoes are done, then add 1 pint of hot milk and boil slowly for 3 hours.

  6. Just before serving, add 1 cup of cream and 2 large spoons of butter.

Finish the chowder

  1. Cut the pork in small pieces and fry until light brown.

  2. Add onions, chopped fine.

  3. When cooked, turn into kettle of clam water; then add the potatoes cut in cubes.

  4. When potatoes are half done, add clams; cook till potatoes are done, add milk.

  5. When it boils, add corn and butter and flour (cooked together in spider).

  6. Let this boil up once; add crackers, broken in pieces.

  7. Set on back of stove; lastly, add the yolk of one egg, and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

By Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Pork + clamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together305 recipes

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

  2. Pork + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  4. Clam + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Clam + buttertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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 flavor and body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften and thicken the broth while adding bulk to the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the broth and gives the chowder a creamy body.
Milk (in the method)
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the finished chowder.
Salt pork
Adds smoky, savory fat that flavors the base.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Once milk is in, the chowder must stay below a hard boil; high heat can curdle the milk and cause it to separate.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, clam, potato, butter, biscuit, pepper. 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.

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