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Oyster Chowder

A soup made with pickled pork, potatoes, onions, crackers, oysters, milk, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Oyster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Fry the pickled pork in a pot.

  2. Add the sliced potatoes and onions; boil until nearly cooked.

Finish the chowder

  1. Soak the crackers in cold water for a few minutes.

  2. Add the oysters, milk, and soaked crackers to the pot.

  3. Boil all together for a few minutes.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

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. 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

Pickled pork
Renders fat and salty, smoky flavour into the pot to season the base.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and adds body, making the chowder thick and hearty.
Crackers
Soaked crackers absorb liquid and swell, helping thicken the chowder.
Oysters
Provide the main briny, sea flavour and tender bites in the chowder.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the chowder its smooth richness.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma as they cook, building the chowder's flavour base.

The step that matters

Boiling with the oysters. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when they boil hard for too long. Keep the heat gentle once they go in, and cook only until they curl and the edges firm, so they stay tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

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