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Clam Chowder

Clam chowder made with clams, salt pork, potatoes, onions, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Scrub the clam shells and place them in a kettle over the fire.

  2. Cover with boiling water and remove from heat as soon as the shells open.

  3. Save the water and set it aside.

Make the chowder

  1. In the kettle, fry the chopped salt pork until brown.

  2. Add the reserved clam water and clam juice, potatoes, and sliced onions.

  3. Simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  4. Add the milk (or water) and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

  5. Stir in the clams 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.

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

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

  2. Pork + potatotop 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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 chewy bite of the chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that browns and carries savory flavor through the whole pot.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the chowder while giving it body.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, building aromatic depth in the base.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth; water may be used instead.

The step that matters

Stir in the clams and serve. Clams turn tough and rubbery when overcooked. Adding them at the end, after the long simmer, keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, potato, 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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