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Clam Chowder

A baked clam chowder made with clams, milk or water, butter, pepper, and soaked soda biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

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

  2. Butter a deep tin basin and coat it with soaked soda biscuits.

Layer

  1. Sprinkle pepper and bits of butter over the biscuits.

  2. Add a double layer of clams, season with pepper, and add more butter.

  3. Layer soaked biscuits again, followed by clams and butter.

  4. Pour in the milk or water and top with another layer of soaked biscuits.

Bake

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

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

  3. Biscuit + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together204 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + clamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

  5. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Soda biscuits
Soak and layer to form a soft, absorbent base that holds the clams and liquid together.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and savory body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts through the layers during baking.
Milk or water
Supplies liquid that softens the biscuits and creates a moist, steamed texture.

The step that matters

Cover with a plate and bake for 45 minutes. Covering traps steam so the biscuits soften and the clams cook gently in the liquid. Uncovered, the top can dry out before the layers are cooked through.

Swap the parsley

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

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

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