Name: Clam Chowder
Ingredients: 4 dozen clams; 6 ears corn; 6 tomatoes; 2 onions; 2 potatoes; ½ pound salt pork; salt to taste; pepper to taste

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

2 gallons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the gills from the clams and chop them very fine.
Chop the corn, tomatoes, onions, and potatoes coarsely.

Cook

Combine all ingredients in a large pot.
Cook for three hours, adding water as necessary to make 2 gallons of chowder.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 body of the chowder.
Corn: Adds sweetness and texture to the chowder.
Tomatoes: Contribute acidity and moisture that help build the broth.
Potatoes: Thicken the broth as their starch releases during long cooking.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, corn, tomato, potato, pork, 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.