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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with corn, potato, salt pork, onion, tomatoes, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 corn stock

  1. Scrape the corn from the cob.

  2. Boil the cobs in enough water to cover them for 20 minutes, then remove the cobs.

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the onion in the salt pork.

  2. Strain the onion mixture into the corn water.

  3. Add the corn, potato, and tomatoes, and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

  4. Stir in the butter and milk, and season to taste.

  5. Serve very hot with crackers.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn
Forms the body of the chowder and adds natural sweetness.
Potato
Thickens the broth slightly as it cooks and gives the chowder substance.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor from the onion into the broth.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth when fried in the pork fat.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the sweetness of the corn.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the chowder's texture.

The step that matters

Simmer until the potatoes are tender. Potatoes must cook fully before the milk goes in. Undercooked potato stays firm and starchy, while adding milk to a vigorously boiling pot can cause it to curdle or scorch on the bottom.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, potato, pork, butter, tomato, milk, 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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