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Clam Cliowder

A hearty soup made with salt pork, onion, potatoes, clams, crackers, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Clam Cliowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork in an iron pot for a few minutes, then remove it, leaving the fat in the pot.

  2. Add the sliced onion to the pot.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the diced potatoes, chopped clams, pepper, a little salt, and more onion in the pot.

  2. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are used, then add the clam liquor.

  3. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the chowder.

  4. Cook for nearly 30 minutes, then add the milk just before serving.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. 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

Salt pork
Renders fat into the pot that flavours the chowder and the onions cooked in it.
Potatoes
Starch that softens during cooking and thickens the broth slightly around them.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour, and their liquor adds savoury depth to the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, rounding out the broth when added at the end.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and add body, helping to thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the milk just before serving. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard for a long time, so it should be added near the end and heated gently.

Swap the onion

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

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

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