Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, eggs, butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Grind the clams and strain the liquor.

  2. Add enough water to boil the clams and cook for about 30 minutes.

Make the chowder

  1. Grind the onion and tomatoes together.

  2. In a large pot, combine the boiled clams, diced potatoes, ground onion, ground tomatoes, and enough water to make about 3 quarts of chowder.

  3. Stir in the butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  4. Remove from heat and add the sweet milk, ensuring it doesn't boil.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk that thicken the chowder and give it substance.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and smoothing the texture.
Sweet milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and a bright, savory flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Add the milk off the heat. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils, so it is added after removing the pot from heat and kept below boiling to keep the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, potato, onion, egg, butter, parsley, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, onion, egg, butter, parsley, 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.

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes