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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams and boil them in a little water until the shells open.

  2. Remove the clams and chop them finely; set the clam liquor aside.

Make the chowder

  1. In a kettle, fry the salt pork until brown, then remove it.

  2. Add the clam liquor and chopped onions to the kettle and boil for a few minutes.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until tender.

  4. Pour in the water and milk, then bring to a boil again.

  5. Mix the flour with a little milk until smooth, then add it to the kettle along with the clams, pepper, and salt.

  6. Add the split Boston crackers, boil for a moment, 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. 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. Clam + porktop 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, softening to thicken and give the chowder body.
Flour
Thickens the milk and broth into a smooth, creamy base.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat and browned flavor into the kettle to season the base.
Boston crackers
Soak up liquid and add body as they boil briefly in the chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour mixed with a little milk first stays smooth; added directly to hot liquid it forms lumps that cannot be whisked out easily. Stirring it in until smooth before adding it to the kettle keeps the chowder silky.

Swap the onion

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

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

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