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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, tomatoes, onions, celery, butter, flour, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,193 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the clams and remove the hearts.

  2. Boil the tomatoes, then strain them through a sieve and add the sugar to the strained tomatoes.

Make the chowder

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and mix in the flour.

  2. Add the clam liquor, thyme, celery, onions, strained tomatoes, and cream to the stewpan.

  3. Let the mixture boil together, seasoning with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg to taste.

  4. Just before serving, add the clams and let it boil once more.

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. Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavour and texture of the chowder.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when melted into the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquids into a smooth, body-giving base.
Tomatoes
Supply acidity and body to the broth once boiled and strained.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture to the chowder.

The step that matters

Mixing in the flour with the melted butter. Cooking the flour briefly in fat, as a roux, removes raw starch taste and lets it thicken evenly. Adding liquid too early or without stirring can leave lumps.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, sugar, onion, thyme, celery, butter, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, sugar, onion, thyme, celery, butter, flour. 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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