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Clam Chowder

A thick clam chowder made with clams, potatoes, cream, milk, flour, salt pork, and served over toasted crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork until the fat is nearly rendered.

  2. Remove the scraps and pour the fat into a kettle with a thick bottom.

Build the layers

  1. Layer the sliced potatoes and clams in the kettle, alternating until half full.

  2. Season lightly with salt and pepper between layers.

  3. Add onion slices if desired.

  4. Pour boiling water over the layers until nearly full.

  5. Monitor to prevent burning.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil for 40 minutes, then add the cream and bring to a boil.

  2. Mix the flour with the milk until smooth, then add to the chowder and bring to a boil again.

  3. Serve the chowder over toasted crackers.

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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender bite in the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that soften during boiling and give the chowder substance.
Thick sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished chowder.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the chowder a fuller body.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the kettle and seasons the layers.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and milk mixture. Flour mixed smoothly into cold milk and stirred in before reboiling thickens evenly. Adding it dry or lumpy causes clumps that are hard to smooth out.

“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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