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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup of clams, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, place the diced salt pork and cook until fat renders.

  2. Add the diced onions and partially cook in the pork fat.

  3. Remove the pork and onions from the pot and set aside.

  4. Layer the chopped clams, sliced potatoes, and tomatoes in the pot.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with water.

  6. Return the pork and onions to the pot, and boil for 1.5 hours.

  7. Add chopped parsley to taste before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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, thickening the broth slightly as they cook.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor into the onions and broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth once partially cooked in pork fat.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a light tomato flavor to the broth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Okrafits about as well

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