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Clam Chowder

A soup made with pork fat, potatoes, clams, ship biscuits, milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chowder

  1. In a soup pot, brown the fat pork.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and hot water; boil until the potatoes are nearly done.

  3. Stir in the broken ship-biscuit, milk, and butter; bring to a boil.

  4. Add the clams with their liquor and boil for ten minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pork + clamtop 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

Fat pork
Renders fat into the pot, giving the chowder a savory base flavor.
Potatoes
Soften during boiling and thicken the broth with their starch.
Ship-biscuit
Breaks down in the hot liquid, adding body and thickening the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor, with their liquor adding brininess.

The step that matters

Add the clams with their liquor and boil for ten minutes. Clams become tough and rubbery when overcooked. Boiling them only for the stated time keeps them tender while still cooking them through.

“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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