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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, milk, corn, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Steam the clams

  1. Clean the clams thoroughly with a brush and place them in a kettle.

  2. Pour 2 quarts of boiling water over the clams and cover tightly.

  3. When the shells open, remove the clams and cut them into small pieces.

Build the chowder

  1. Chop the salt pork and fry it in a skillet until light brown.

  2. Add the chopped onions to the skillet and stir until cooked.

  3. Transfer the pork and onions to the kettle with the clam water.

  4. Add the diced potatoes and cook until they are half done.

  5. Add the clams and continue cooking until the potatoes are fully cooked.

  6. Stir in the milk and bring to a boil.

  7. Add the corn and simmer for a few minutes.

  8. In a separate pan, brown the butter and flour together, then add to the chowder.

  9. Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

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. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the chowder.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders and browns in the skillet.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thicken the chowder and give it substance.
Milk
Creates the creamy base and adds mild sweetness and richness.
Butter and flour
Browned together to form a roux that thickens and adds nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour. Cooking the flour in fat until golden removes raw starch taste and thickens the chowder evenly. Stirring it into the hot liquid prevents lumps.

Swap the onion

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

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

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