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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup of clams, potatoes, onions, celery, tomatoes, salt pork, and milk, thickened with cracker crumbs.

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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and fry slowly in the bottom of a kettle until all the fat is rendered.

  2. Add the clams, chopped potatoes, onions, and celery to the kettle.

  3. Stir in the tomatoes and 2 quarts of water, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste, keeping in mind that the clams are already salty.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil slowly for 4 hours and 15 minutes before serving.

  2. Add the hot milk and cracker crumbs just 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 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. Pork + potatotop 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

Salt pork
Its rendered fat carries flavor through the chowder and gives the base richness.
Potatoes
Their starch thickens the broth slightly and gives the chowder body.
Cracker crumbs
They absorb liquid and thicken the milk added at the end, adding body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, mellowing the tomato acidity.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savory depth that balance the milk and pork fat.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and brininess to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and cracker crumbs. Milk can curdle or scorch if boiled for long, and cracker crumbs thicken unevenly if added too early. Adding both just before serving keeps the milk smooth and the texture even.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

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