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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, milk, and soda crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cut salt pork into cubes and fry until crisp.

  2. Add sliced onion and fry until slightly brown.

Cook and finish

  1. Add diced potatoes and 1½ quarts of water; cook until potatoes are tender.

  2. Add clams and simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Stir in milk, bring to a boil, and serve with bread croutons.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  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

Salt pork
Renders fat that fries the onions and adds savory, salty flavor to the chowder.
Onions
Soften and turn slightly brown, adding sweetness and depth to the broth.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook and thicken the chowder while adding body.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and briny taste throughout the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness, mellowing the broth's flavor.

The step that matters

Add milk and bring to a boil. Milk can curdle or scorch if it is boiled hard or for too long. Adding it at the end, then heating only until hot, keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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