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Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, milk, potatoes, pork, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Separate the two parts of the clams.

  2. Chop the rims.

  3. Squeeze out the black from the stomachs.

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the pork slices until crisp, then remove them from the fat.

  2. Add hot water, clam stomachs, salt, and pepper to the fat; cook until the potatoes are nearly done.

  3. Add the chopped clam rims, milk, and strained clam water; bring to a boil.

  4. Dip crackers in cold water and add them to the chowder 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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

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

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.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they cook and give the chowder body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth.
Pork
Its rendered fat carries flavor and gives the base a savory, smoky richness.

The step that matters

Cook the potatoes until nearly done before adding the milk. Potatoes need to cook through in the hot broth before the milk goes in. Bringing the milk to a boil too early can scorch or curdle it, and the potatoes finish cooking as the chowder simmers.

“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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