Why it works: Clam and pork 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: milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Clean and pick over clams, using one cup cold water, drain, reserve liquor, heat to boiling point, and strain.
Chop finely the hard part of the clams.
Cut the pork into small pieces and try out.
Add onion, fry five minutes, and strain into a stewpan.
Parboil potatoes five minutes in boiling water to cover; drain.
Layer and cook
Put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the stewpan.
Add chopped clams, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dredge generously with flour.
Add remaining potatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and add two and one-half cups boiling water.
Cook ten minutes.
Add milk, soft part of clams, and butter.
Boil three minutes.
Add crackers split and soaked in enough cold milk to moisten.
Thicken and serve
Reheat clam water to boiling point, and thicken with one tablespoon butter and flour cooked together.
Add to chowder just before serving.
Add clam water last to prevent milk separation.
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.
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Clam + porktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together305 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + porktop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,667 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,019 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Clam + potatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together80 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Clams
- Provide the main flavor and texture, and their liquor adds savory depth to the broth.
- Potatoes
- Add body and starchy bulk that makes the chowder hearty.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the chowder.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor.
- Crackers
- Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder.
The step that matters
Adding the clam water last. Adding the hot clam liquor after the milk, as the record directs, helps prevent the milk from separating or curdling when it is heated with the acidic or salty liquid.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, potato, pork, pepper, butter, milk):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, pork, pepper, butter, milk. 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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