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Corn and Tomato Chowder

A hearty soup of tomatoes, corn, salt pork, onions, and crackers, simmered with butter and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn and Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Fry the chopped salt pork in a soup kettle until it begins to crisp.

  2. Add the sliced onions and cook until light brown.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Layer and simmer

  1. Layer the tomatoes and corn alternately, seasoning as you go and scattering the rolled crackers over each layer.

  2. Cover with boiling water and cook slowly for 45 minutes.

  3. Season to taste, then stir in the floured butter.

  4. Bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve.

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. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and flavor into the kettle, seasoning the whole chowder.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and liquid that gives the chowder its body and bright flavor.
Corn
Adds sweetness and starch that thickens the chowder as it cooks.
Onions
Build savory sweetness through slow browning in the rendered fat.
Flour
Thickens the liquid, giving the chowder a fuller, smoother texture.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and soften, adding body to the layered chowder.

The step that matters

Cook the onions until light brown. Browning the onions in the rendered fat develops deeper, sweeter flavor. Pale onions leave the base flat, and the flavor carries through the whole chowder.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pork, corn, flour, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pork, corn, flour, butter. 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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