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Clam Chowder

A soup made with diced potatoes, tomatoes, onion, parsley, clams, butter, milk, and hard boiled eggs.

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

  1. Combine diced potatoes, tomatoes, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper with enough water to cover in a pot, and boil until soft.

  2. Boil clams in a separate pot for 15 minutes, then add the boiled clams to the potato mixture.

  3. Boil the combined mixture for an additional 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in butter and milk. If clam flavor is too strong, add more milk.

  5. Chop hard boiled eggs and add them to the chowder.

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

Potatoes
Soften into tender pieces that thicken the chowder and give it body.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and savory, briny character.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Milk
Makes the broth creamy and mellows the strength of the clam flavor.
Hard boiled eggs
Add extra body and a soft, rich texture when chopped into the chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk should be stirred in after the mixture has finished boiling, and added gradually. Boiling milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot and cause it to curdle, so a gentle heat keeps the chowder smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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