Name: Clam Chowder
Ingredients: 4 medium potatoes, cut into pieces; 1 onion, chopped; ½ pound water crackers, softened in cold water; 25 clams, chopped; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste (optional); parsley, chopped; whole cloves (optional); allspice (optional)

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Cover the potatoes and onion with hot water and cook until slightly soft.
Add the softened water crackers to the pot.
Layer the chopped clams and then the crackers in the kettle.
Season with pepper, and add salt if necessary.
Garnish with parsley and add whole cloves and allspice if desired.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,289 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Hold their shape while adding body and starch to thicken the chowder.
Water crackers: Soften and absorb liquid, thickening the chowder and giving it body.
Clams: Provide the main seafood flavor and tender texture in the chowder.
Onion: Adds savory aromatic sweetness as it softens in the hot water.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, clam, pepper, parsley, allspice):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Garlicfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, clam, pepper, parsley, allspice. 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.