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Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, butter, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 the clams

  1. Remove the clams from their shells and chop them, saving the liquor.

Make the chowder

  1. In a kettle, combine the sliced potatoes and onions with boiling water.

  2. Boil the potatoes and onions until tender.

  3. Add the chopped clams and their liquor to the kettle.

  4. Stir in the butter and cook for a few minutes.

  5. Just before serving, add the milk.

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavour and texture of the chowder, with their liquor adding savoury depth.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth as they cook and give the chowder its body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the boiling water.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, added late so it does not curdle or scorch.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded, fatty mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk just before serving. Milk that boils for long can scorch on the bottom of the kettle and can separate or curdle, so it is added at the end and kept hot without a hard boil.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, egg, 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.

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