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Corn Chowder

A creamy soup made with corn, potatoes, onions, pork fat, and Boston crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Prepare the base

  1. Cut the pork into small pieces and render the fat in a pan.

  2. Add the grated onion and cook for five minutes without browning, stirring constantly.

  3. Strain the fat into a stew pan.

  4. Parboil the diced potatoes in boiling salted water for five minutes, then drain.

Make the chowder

  1. Add the potatoes to the rendered fat, then add two cups of boiling water and cook until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Stir in the corn and scalded milk, bringing to a boil while ensuring the milk does not scorch.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then add the butter.

Serve

  1. Split the crackers and soak them in just enough milk to moisten.

  2. Remove the crackers with a skimmer, pour the chowder into a hot tureen, and place the crackers on top.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Potato + porktop 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

Fat salt pork
Renders fat that carries the flavour of the whole chowder.
Potatoes
Soften into tender pieces that thicken the chowder and give it body.
Scalded milk
Forms the creamy liquid that gives the chowder its smooth body.
Corn
Adds sweetness and the main vegetable flavour.
Boston crackers
Soak up milk and add texture when placed on top.
Butter
Adds richness and fat at the end for a silky finish.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch on the bottom of a pan when overheated. Stirring while the milk heats and keeping the heat controlled prevents a burnt taste and a stuck layer.

Swap the onion

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

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

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