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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with potatoes, onions, clams, and a butter‑flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Cook the base

  1. Combine sliced potatoes, onion, boiling water, and fried salt pork in a pot.

  2. Boil gently until vegetables are tender.

  3. Add stewed tomatoes.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Stir in strained clam juice.

  6. Skim after boiling.

Thicken and add clams

  1. Blend butter with flour.

  2. Stir mixture into chowder.

  3. Boil for a few minutes.

  4. Add finely chopped clams.

  5. Bring to a quick boil.

  6. Remove from heat immediately.

Serve

  1. Pour into a hot tureen.

  2. Keep warm in the oven until ready to 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 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

Potatoes
Their starch softens and partly thickens the broth, giving the chowder body.
Clams
They supply the main seafood flavor and a tender, chewy bite.
Clam juice
It adds concentrated savory seafood flavor to the liquid base.
Butter
It carries fat and richness, adding a smooth mouthfeel to the chowder.
Flour
Blended with butter, it forms a roux that thickens the chowder slightly.
Stewed tomatoes
They add acidity and a mild sweetness that balances the rich broth.

The step that matters

Add the clams late and boil only briefly. Clam proteins toughen quickly when overheated, so adding the chopped clams near the end and removing the pot from heat promptly keeps them tender.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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