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Clam Chowdeb

A soup made with clams, potatoes, salt pork, onions, crackers, and butter.

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 Chowdeb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Boil clams in 1 quart of water in an iron pot, covered tightly, until they open.

  2. Remove clams from shells and set the meat aside to cool.

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

Make the base

  1. Add sliced potatoes to the boiling water.

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

  3. Sauté finely sliced onions in the pork fat until soft.

  4. Soak crushed crackers in milk for a few minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Twenty minutes before serving, add pork, onions, soaked crackers, pepper, and salt to the soup pot.

  2. Stir in the boiling water and potatoes.

  3. Mix together cracker crumbs and butter, then stir in clams.

  4. Simmer the chowder slowly for 15 minutes 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. 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 seafood flavor and tender meat that forms the body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth and gives the chowder substance.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor from the rendered drippings used to cook the onions.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften in the pork fat.
Crackers
Soaked and added to thicken the chowder and give it body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavor and mouthfeel of the chowder.

The step that matters

Simmer the chowder slowly for 15 minutes before serving. Gentle heat keeps the clams tender and prevents the milk and butter from separating or scorching, while letting the starches thicken the broth.

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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