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Oyster Chowder

A creamy oyster chowder with pickled pork, potatoes, onions, crackers, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Oyster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the pickled pork in a pot.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and onions; boil until nearly cooked.

  3. Soak the crackers in cold water for a few minutes.

Finish the chowder

  1. Add the soaked crackers, oysters, and milk to the pot.

  2. Boil all together for a few minutes.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pickled pork
Renders fat into the pot and adds salty, smoky flavour to the broth.
Potatoes
Soften during boiling and thicken the chowder as their starch releases.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder into a creamy body.
Oysters
Provide the main seafood flavour and tender texture once gently cooked.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base and adds richness and sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil all together for a few minutes. Once oysters go in, prolonged boiling toughens them and can make the milk separate. A brief simmer cooks the oysters through while keeping them tender and the milk smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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