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Clam Chowder

A layered pork and clam soup thickened with crackers and flour, seasoned with pepper, salt, wine, catsup, and spiced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the pot

  1. Fry the pork slices until crisp, then chop into pieces.

  2. Sprinkle some pork in the bottom of a pot and layer with clams.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then add bits of butter.

  4. Add a layer of chopped onions, followed by a layer of split crackers moistened in warm milk.

  5. Pour a little hot fat from the pork over the crackers and repeat the layering.

  6. When the pot is nearly full, cover with water and stew slowly for 45 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. Drain off the excess liquid and return it to the pot.

  2. Thicken the chowder with flour or pounded crackers.

  3. Add wine, catsup, and spiced sauce; boil and pour over the chowder in a tureen.

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

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

  2. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the chowder.
Fat pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that carries through the layers.
Small crackers
Soak up milk and liquid, softening into the chowder and adding body.
Flour or pounded crackers
Thickens the cooking liquid so the chowder becomes creamier.
Chopped onions
Contribute aromatic sweetness and savory depth as they cook.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich broth.

The step that matters

Thicken the chowder with flour or pounded crackers. Flour or crumbs must be fully blended into the hot liquid and simmered, otherwise they stay lumpy or taste raw and the chowder does not thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, clam, pepper, butter, milk, flour, wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clam, pepper, butter, milk, flour, wine. 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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