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Clam Chowder

Clam chowder made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, crackers, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Remove black heads from clams and simmer them in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Slowly fry salt pork until brown and dry; then add chopped onions and fry until pale straw color.

  3. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the mixture to the water with the clam heads boiling.

Layer and simmer

  1. In a soup kettle, layer potatoes, soft clams, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add a layer of crushed crackers; repeat until all ingredients are used.

  2. Strain boiling water over layered ingredients, cover, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Add milk and bring to a boil.

  4. If desired, strain water over onion, pork, and flour mixture instead of following the initial method.

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender, chewy bite in the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thicken the chowder and give it substance.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor and browns the base of the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a smooth, creamy consistency when cooked briefly.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, rounding out the broth.
Soft crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they layer and simmer.

The step that matters

Frying the flour mixture. Cooking flour briefly in fat removes its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. Stirring constantly keeps it from scorching or forming lumps.

Swap the onion

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

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

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