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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, and pork, served with crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the piece of pork in a kettle.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook until softened.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until they are soft.

  4. Stir in the chopped clams.

  5. Pour in the clam water and the quart of milk.

  6. Add plenty of butter and stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve with crackers on top.

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

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

  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

Pork
Fried first to render fat and flavor the base of the chowder.
Onion
Softened by cooking to add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Potatoes
Cooked until soft to add body and thicken the chowder slightly.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and briny taste throughout the chowder.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the chowder its rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pouring in the milk after the clams and potatoes. Milk can scorch or curdle if it boils hard over direct heat, so keep the chowder at a gentle simmer once the milk goes in and avoid rapid boiling.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, clam, milk, 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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