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Gloucester Clam Chowder

A thick clam chowder made with clams, salt pork, milk, potatoes, onions, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gloucester Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Separate the bodies of the clams from the necks.

  2. Chop the necks slightly and cover with a little hot water.

Start the chowder

  1. Add all the clam liquor and the sliced onion.

  2. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with bits of salt pork and brown well.

  3. Add the browned salt pork to the chowder.

  4. Cook slowly for 2 hours.

Finish the chowder

  1. Add 1 pint of milk and the bodies of the clams.

  2. Cook for 1 hour.

  3. Add the potatoes.

  4. When the potatoes are soft, add the remaining pint of milk, season with salt and pepper, and add the 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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Clam + porktop 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. Milk + potatotop 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the chowder's characteristic texture.
Salt pork
Rendered fat and browned bits add savory depth to the broth.
Potato
Adds body and starch that makes the chowder heartier as it cooks.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the saltiness of the broth.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building aroma in the base.
Pilot crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder as they soften.

The step that matters

Cooking the clam bodies with the milk. Clams turn tough and rubbery when held at a hard boil for a long time. Cooking them gently for the set hour keeps them tender while the flavors blend into the milk.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, milk, potato, pepper. 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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