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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup made with clams, salt pork, potatoes, onions, milk, and crackers, simmered in clam juice and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Drain the juice from the clams and chop them fine.

  2. Fry the salt pork in a kettle until brown.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the fried pork, potatoes, clams, and onions in the kettle, seasoning with salt and pepper between each layer.

  2. Pour the clam juice and boiling water over the layers to cover them.

  3. Boil until the potatoes are soft.

  4. Add the milk and a layer of crackers.

  5. When just about to boil, stir in the butter, then remove from heat and 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. 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. 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 the body of the chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor and browns for a savory base.
Potatoes
Soften during boiling and thicken the chowder with their starch.
Milk
Makes the broth creamy and mellows the briny clam flavor.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder as they soften.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth finish to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk is added after the potatoes are soft and the mixture should not be allowed to boil hard once it is in. Boiling milk can curdle and scorch on the bottom of the kettle, so it is heated only until just about to boil.

Swap the onion

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