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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made from clams, potatoes, salt pork, onions, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 the clams

  1. Boil the clams in 1 quart of water in an iron pot, covered tightly to retain steam.

  2. Once the clams open, remove them from their shells and set the meat aside to cool.

  3. Strain the clam water back into the pot and skim it just before boiling.

Make the base

  1. Add the sliced potatoes to the boiling water.

  2. Fry the salt pork until crispy, then remove it from the pot.

  3. Slowly fry the onions in the pork fat until soft.

  4. Soak the crushed crackers in milk for about 20 minutes.

  5. In the soup pot, combine the pork, onions, soaked crackers, pepper, and salt.

  6. Add the boiling water and potatoes, stirring well.

Finish the chowder

  1. Rub together the cracker crumbs and butter, then stir in the clams.

  2. Boil slowly for 15 minutes to finish the chowder.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main flavor and texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the broth as they cook.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor when rendered and fried.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the pork fat.
Crackers
Soaked in milk, they thicken the chowder and add body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Skim the clam water before boiling. Skimming removes foam and grit released by the clams, keeping the broth clear and free of sand. Boiling the potatoes in unskimmed liquid would leave the chowder cloudy and gritty.

Swap the onion

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

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

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