Skip to main content
Main

Oyster Chowder

A soup of oysters, potatoes, onions, salt pork, milk, and buttered crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Oyster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Fry the salt pork in a kettle.

  2. Remove the scraps.

  3. Add water and sliced onion.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes with the lid on.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Add sliced potatoes.

  7. Cook until tender.

Add the oysters and serve

  1. Boil the oysters in enough water to cover them.

  2. Add the oysters to the kettle.

  3. Stir in the milk.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add the split and buttered crackers.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and flavour into the kettle, seasoning the broth.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the chowder slightly with starch.
Oysters
Provide the main briny seafood flavour and tender texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the chowder.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil after adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it is boiled hard or for too long. Keep the heat controlled so the oysters stay tender and the chowder stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes