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Corn Chowder

A thick soup made with corn, potatoes, onions, butter, flour, milk, and egg yolks, topped with crushed crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. In a saucepan, layer diced potatoes, chopped onions, and grated corn until all ingredients are used.

  2. Pour in boiling water, cover, and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In another saucepan, blend butter and flour over heat, then add milk, salt, and pepper, stirring until boiling.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a serving bowl, sprinkle crushed water crackers on top, and serve immediately.

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. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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

Potatoes
Soft, starchy pieces that give the chowder body and help thicken the broth as they cook.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture, and its natural starch contributes to the chowder's body.
Flour
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and a smoother, creamier texture.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce, adding richness and body.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble if the sauce is too hot or boiling when they are added. Removing the pan from heat first, and mixing the yolks with milk beforehand, helps keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, potato, butter, flour, milk, egg, 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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