Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

Clam chowder made with clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, crackers, butter, and milk, boiled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare

  1. Chop clams finely.

  2. Cut pork into small pieces and fry until browned.

  3. Slice onions thinly and dice potatoes.

  4. Crush the crackers.

Cook and serve

  1. In a kettle, layer the clams, pork, onions, potatoes, and crushed crackers with pieces of butter.

  2. Add enough water to keep the mixture boiling for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in hot milk and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and texture of the chowder.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders and browns.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the chowder as they cook.
Crackers
Thicken the broth as they absorb liquid and break down.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Keeping the mixture boiling for 30 minutes. Boiling steadily cooks the potatoes through and lets the starch from potatoes and crackers thicken the liquid. Overcooking clams can make them tough and rubbery, so keep the boil controlled.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, potato, butter, 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.

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes