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Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, clam liquor, butter, flour, spices, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams and place them in a large pan.

  2. Pour boiling water over the clams and cover tightly.

  3. Let the clams sit for 10–15 minutes.

  4. Remove the clams from the pan.

  5. Cut off the black heads of the clams.

  6. Season the clams with nutmeg, mace, pepper, and salt.

Make the chowder

  1. In a saucepan, bring 3 quarts of clam liquor to a boil.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix ½ pound of butter with 3 tablespoons of flour until smooth.

  3. Stir the butter and flour mixture into the boiling clam liquor.

  4. Add the seasoned clams to the boiling liquor.

  5. Let the mixture boil for 15 minutes.

  6. If desired, stir in 1 pint of cream or milk 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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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 tender body of the chowder.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and with flour forms a thickening base for the broth.
Flour
Thickens the clam liquor when cooked with butter, giving the chowder body.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smoother, creamier texture to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour into the boiling liquor. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Mixing it smooth with butter first, then stirring it into boiling liquor while whisking, helps it disperse evenly and thicken without lumps.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, nutmeg, pepper, butter, flour, cream):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, nutmeg, pepper, butter, flour, cream. 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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