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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, pork, onions, potatoes, and ship-bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Put the clams in a pot with their liquor and a little salt.

  2. Boil for about 3 minutes.

  3. Strain and reserve the liquor.

Make the chowder

  1. Melt the butter.

  2. Fry the onion and pork until lightly colored.

  3. Stir in the flour, and cook until thoroughly combined.

  4. Add the reserved clam liquor, stock or milk, cream, mace, thyme, and diced potatoes.

  5. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

  6. Add the diced clams.

  7. Add the broken ship-bread or 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  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 flavor and texture, and release their liquor for the broth.
Butter
Carries the flavor of the onion and pork and gives the base richness.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich base.
Potatoes
Add starchy body and substance, softening as the chowder cooks.
Ship-bread or crackers
Thicken the chowder further as they soften in the hot liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Cooking the flour fully with the butter and fat before adding liquid removes its raw taste and lets it thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

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