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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with salt pork, onions, potatoes, sweet corn, milk, and buttered crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the salt pork into 1‑inch pieces and slice the onions thin.

  2. Boil the pork and onions together in 2 quarts of water for 30 minutes.

  3. Peel and slice the potatoes thick enough to hold their shape, then add them to the soup and boil for 10 minutes.

Finish the soup

  1. Scald the milk in a separate pot.

  2. After the potatoes have boiled, add the grated sweet corn and the hot milk, then bring the soup to a boil.

Serve

  1. Cover the bottom of a soup tureen with toasted and buttered crackers, then pour the soup over them.

  2. Sprinkle pepper on top and serve.

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.

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

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

  2. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat and flavour into the broth as it simmers with the onions.
Potatoes
Hold their shape when sliced thick and give the chowder body and starch.
Sweet corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk after the potatoes have boiled. Milk that boils or curdles can separate and turn grainy. Scalding it first and adding it near the end, then only bringing the soup back to a boil, keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, corn, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, corn, milk, pepper. 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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