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Clam Chowder

A layered clam chowder made with clams, salt pork, potatoes, vegetables, and crackers, simmered in clam juice and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the chowder

  1. In a tin pail, layer small pieces of salt pork.

  2. Add a layer of chopped clams.

  3. Layer thinly sliced raw potatoes on top.

  4. Add vegetables like celery, tomatoes, onion, and parsley, with lemon slices and pepper.

  5. Top with broken Boston crackers or pilot biscuit.

  6. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  7. Pour clam juice over the layers and add a little water to moisten.

Cook and finish

  1. Cover the pail and place it in a kettle of boiling water.

  2. Boil for three hours, checking moisture after the first hour and adding water if needed.

  3. If potatoes are not tender, transfer to a kettle and stir constantly until cooked.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Large round clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the chowder's body.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the layers during cooking.
Thinly sliced raw potatoes
Cook down to thicken the chowder and give it substance.
Broken boston crackers or pilot biscuit
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder as they soften.
Clam juice
Adds savory seafood flavor and moisture to the layers.

The step that matters

Checking moisture during the long boil. The pail boils for three hours, so liquid can evaporate or scorch the bottom. Checking after the first hour and adding water keeps the layers moist enough to cook evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pork, potato, celery, tomato, onion, parsley):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, pork, potato, celery, tomato, onion, parsley. 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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