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Clam Chowder

A soup made with diced pork, onions, potatoes, clams, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the diced pork in a pot until browned.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until soft.

  3. Add the diced potatoes and enough water to cover all ingredients.

  4. Boil until the potatoes are tender.

  5. Stir in the clams and their juice, then add the fresh milk.

  6. Season with salt and pepper, then bring to a boil once more.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Browned fat and drippings build savory flavor as the base of the chowder.
Onions
Softened onions add sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Potatoes
Cooked until tender, they thicken the chowder slightly and give it body.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor, and their juice adds briny depth to the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, rounding out the chowder's texture.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot and may curdle or separate if it boils hard. Heating it gently and stirring keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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