Name: Corn and Tomato Chowder
Ingredients: 1 quart tomatoes, peeled and sliced; ¼ pound chopped salt pork; 2 onions, sliced; 6 ears corn, sliced from the cob; 2 tablespoons rolled crackers; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 tablespoon butter; a dash of cayenne or paprika; 1 pint boiling water

Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn and Tomato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Fry the chopped salt pork in a soup kettle until it begins to crisp.
Add the sliced onions and cook until light brown.
Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Layer and simmer

Layer the tomatoes and corn alternately, seasoning as you go and scattering the rolled crackers over each layer.
Cover with boiling water and cook slowly for 45 minutes.

Finish and serve

Season to taste, stir in the floured butter, bring to a boil, and serve.

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.

Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + porktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,843 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

Tomatoes: Provide the main body and acidic, sweet flavor of the chowder as they soften.
Corn: Adds sweetness and body as its starch thickens the broth during slow cooking.
Rolled crackers: Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder as they break down.
Flour: Thickens the broth when cooked with the fat.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor from rendered pork fat used to start the chowder.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they brown in the pork fat.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes. Flour must be cooked in the fat for a few minutes to remove its raw taste and to thicken the base evenly. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pork, corn, flour, butter):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Okrafits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pork, corn, flour, 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Corn Fritters203 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Pork Cake107 recipes

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Corn and Tomato Chowder