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Potato Chowder

A creamy ham and potato chowder made with butter, onions, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Potato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pot, add the ham and onions, and cook until browned.

Simmer the potatoes

  1. Cover with 1 pint of boiling water and add the potatoes.

  2. Cook slowly for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the milk thickened with flour and let it boil for 1 to 2 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and browned fat that seasons the chowder.
Potatoes
Their starch softens during cooking and gives the chowder body.
Onions
Sweeten and add aroma as they soften and brown in butter.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Flour
Starch thickens the milk into a smoother, heavier liquid when heated.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps the ham and onions brown.

The step that matters

Boil the flour-thickened milk briefly. Flour starch only thickens fully once it heats to boiling, so the milk needs a short boil. Boiling much longer can scorch the milk on the pot base or make it separate.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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