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Clam Chowder

A baked clam chowder layered with clams, butter, breadcrumbs, and soda biscuits, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease a deep tin basin and sprinkle it with grated bread crumbs or soaked crackers.

Layer and bake

  1. Sprinkle pepper and add bits of butter and chopped parsley if desired.

  2. Layer half of the clams on top, season with pepper, and add more bits of butter.

  3. Add another layer of soaked crackers, followed by the remaining clams and more butter.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper and pour in the milk or water.

  5. Top with a final layer of soaked crackers.

  6. Cover with a plate and bake for 45 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together204 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 make up the bulk of the dish.
Soda biscuits
Soak up liquid and form a soft, tender layered structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the layers.
Milk
Supplies moisture and helps the layers bake into a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Covering the dish before baking. The cover traps steam so the crackers soften and the clams cook gently in moisture. Without it, the top can dry out and harden before the inside is set.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, butter, clam, milk, biscuit):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, butter, clam, milk, biscuit. 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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