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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, salt pork, crackers, butter, onion, wine, ketchup, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the fat salt pork until crisp, then chop finely.

  2. Layer the chopped pork in the bottom of a pot.

  3. Add clams, sprinkle with pepper, coarse sea salt, bits of butter, and minced onion.

  4. Add a layer of small crackers soaked in warm milk.

Cook and strain

  1. Fill the pot with cold water and cook slowly for 45 minutes after the water is heated.

  2. Strain the chowder without pressing or shaking.

  3. Place the clams and other ingredients into a covered tureen.

Thicken and serve

  1. Return the strained liquid to the pot, thicken with rolled crackers.

  2. Add the wine and ketchup, bring to a boil, and pour over the chowder.

  3. Serve with sliced lemon.

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

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

  2. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

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 flavor and adds savory, crisp bits to the chowder.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the chowder.
Small crackers
Soaked in milk and cooked down, they add starch that gives the broth body.
Rolled crackers
Starch that thickens the strained liquid into a fuller consistency.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that rounds out the broth's flavor.
Wine
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory broth.

The step that matters

Strain without pressing or shaking. Pressing or shaking the strainer forces fine particles and grit through, which cloudies the broth and makes it gritty. Letting liquid drain naturally keeps the chowder clear and smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, clam, pepper, butter, milk, wine, ketchup):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clam, pepper, butter, milk, wine, ketchup. 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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