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Nantucket Clam Chowder

A creamy clam chowder made with clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, milk, and flour.

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 ↓

Nantucket Clam Chowder

at least 5 quarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork cubes in a pot until they are a delicate brown.

  2. Remove the scraps and add them to a large kettle with boiling water and clam water.

  3. Fry onions in the pork drippings and pour them into the kettle.

Cook the chowder

  1. Add chopped potatoes and necks of clams, then boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the bodies of the clams and about 3 quarts of water, then boil for 20 minutes.

  3. For canned clams, reduce cooking time.

Thicken and season

  1. Add milk and thicken with about 1 cup of flour mixed with a little milk.

  2. Adjust salt to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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 browns the base for savory depth.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, softening as they cook to give body to the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving a creamier body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma when fried in the pork drippings.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour mixed with milk. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; mixing it with a little cold milk first lets the starch disperse evenly, so the chowder thickens smoothly as it heats.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pork, milk, potato, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, milk, potato, flour. 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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