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Clam Chowder

A soup made with potatoes, onion, turnip, carrot, tomato, cabbage, clams, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine cold water, potatoes, onion, turnip, carrot, tomato, and cabbage.

  2. Cook slowly for 4 hours.

  3. Add chopped clams and butter, stirring well.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the cream.

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. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Soften during slow cooking and thicken the broth as their starch releases.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the chowder.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the finished chowder.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.
Onion
Builds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream just before serving. Cream held at a long simmer can separate or turn grainy, so adding it at the end keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, turnip, carrot, tomato, clam, butter):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, turnip, carrot, tomato, clam, 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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