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Clam Chowder

A thick soup of clams, vegetables, and pork fat, finished with milk and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Place the chopped clams with their liquor over the fire.

  2. Add 2 to 3 times the amount of clam juice or water.

  3. In a separate pan, cook the chopped onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and parsley in the fat from the salt pork.

  4. Pour the fat and scraps into the clam mixture.

Finish the chowder

  1. Gradually stir in the rolled crackers.

  2. Add the milk 2 minutes before the chowder is done.

  3. Season with black 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, giving the chowder a hearty, thick texture.
Salt pork
Its fat carries flavor into the onions and vegetables and enriches the broth.
Crackers
Thicken the chowder as they absorb liquid and break down.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard or sits over high heat too long. Adding it near the end and keeping the chowder at a gentle heat keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, onion, carrot, potato, tomato, pork, milk. 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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