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Tomato Chowder

A tomato-based soup with peppers, onions, vinegar, spices, and optional horseradish, simmered for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onions finely.

Simmer

  1. Combine tomatoes, green peppers, onions, vinegar, salt, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves in a large pot.

  2. Tie the ground spices in a thin cloth and add to the pot.

  3. Boil the mixture slowly for 2 hours.

  4. Optionally, add chopped horseradish before sealing.

Seal

  1. Seal the chowder for storage, though it can keep without sealing.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the chowder and break down into its main body and moisture.
Green peppers
Add vegetable body and a fresh, slightly bitter edge that stands up to long cooking.
Onions
Build savory aroma and sweetness as they soften during the long simmer.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the chowder.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the chowder during simmering.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly for 2 hours. Simmering gently over a long period lets the tomatoes and peppers break down and the spices infuse evenly. A hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pot and make the chowder taste burnt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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