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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with corn, potatoes, salt pork, onions, milk, butter, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Start the base

  1. Render the fat from the salt pork cubes and add the sliced onion; cook for 5 minutes without browning.

  2. Strain the fat into a stew pan.

  3. Parboil the potato cubes for 5 minutes, then drain and add them to the fat.

Simmer

  1. Add 2 cups of boiling water and cook until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Stir in the corn and scalded milk, then bring to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne; add the butter and the crackers soaked in enough cold milk to cover.

  2. Remove the crackers with a slotted spoon, pour the chowder into a hot tureen, place the crackers on top, and serve immediately.

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. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

Potatoes
Cooked until tender, they soften and partly break down, giving the chowder body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a rich, smooth texture to the broth.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and a fresh corn flavor to the chowder.
Salt pork
Its rendered fat carries flavor into the base and seasons the onion and potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel at the end of cooking.
Crackers
Soaked in milk, their starch thickens the chowder slightly and adds body.

The step that matters

Stir in the corn and scalded milk, then bring to a boil. Milk contains proteins and sugars that can scorch on the bottom of the pan or curdle if it boils hard. Stirring constantly while the milk heats keeps it smooth and prevents sticking.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, pork, butter, potato, 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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