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Oyster Chowder

A creamy soup made with pickled pork, potatoes, onions, water, milk, and oysters.

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 ↓

Oyster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the pork in a large kettle until browned.

  2. Add the onions and 1 quart of water; cook until onions are partly soft.

  3. Stir in the potatoes and another quart of water; cook until potatoes are tender.

  4. Add the milk and oysters; season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with crackers on top.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pickled pork
Browned first, it adds savoury fat and rich flavour to the broth.
Potatoes
Break down partly as they cook, thickening the chowder and giving it body.
Onions
Soften as they cook, adding sweetness and aroma to the base.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the broth.
Oysters
Add their briny flavour and tender texture when added near the end.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and oysters. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, and milk can curdle if it boils hard. Adding both at the end, over gentle heat, keeps the oysters tender and the chowder smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, milk, oyster, 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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