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Corn Chowder

A thickened corn chowder made with onions, butter, corn, potatoes, crackers, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 the chowder

  1. Melt the butter in a porcelain kettle and cook the chopped onions until tender.

  2. Add the corn, potatoes, crushed crackers, and water; bring to a boil until the potatoes are done.

Finish and serve

  1. Bring the milk to a boil in a separate dish.

  2. Add the boiling milk to the kettle, let it boil once, and serve.

  3. Do not stir while cooking to maintain appearance.

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. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and build a sweet, savory base for the chowder.
Potatoes
Break down partly as they cook, thickening the chowder and giving body.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder as they dissolve.
Milk
Adds richness and creamy body to the finished chowder.
Corn
Contributes sweetness and tender texture to the chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it is overheated or boiled too long, so it is brought to a boil separately and added at the end, then allowed to boil only once.

Swap the onion

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

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

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