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Clam Chowder

A thick soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, pepper, sea salt, and milk.

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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the salt pork until crisp, then chop finely.

  2. In a kettle, add a little fat from the pork.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the potatoes, clams, onions, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add a layer of chopped pork, then repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  3. Pour the clam juice over the layers.

  4. Cook for 3 hours, being careful not to burn.

Finish

  1. 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + porktop 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. 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the chowder's body.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, helping thicken the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savory flavor into the base for the layers.
Onions
Add aroma and mild sweetness as they soften during slow cooking.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Cook for 3 hours, being careful not to burn.. Long, gentle heat lets the potatoes soften and the flavors blend. Milk-based and sugary liquids scorch easily on the bottom of a kettle, so the heat and stirring need watching.

Swap the onion

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