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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with pork, onions, potatoes, corn, milk, butter, 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. In a saucepan, fry the pork pieces until nicely browned, then remove them.

  2. Add the sliced onions to the hot fat and fry until cooked.

  3. Pour in the hot water and boil until the onions are thoroughly cooked, then strain the broth through a fine sieve.

Cook the chowder

  1. Layer the sliced potatoes and corn in a saucepan, sprinkling each layer lightly with flour and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the strained broth over the layers, cover, and boil for 30 minutes until the corn and potatoes are cooked.

  3. Stir in the boiled milk, butter, and soaked crackers, then cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

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. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Pork fat
Renders fat for browning the pork and frying the onions, adding savory flavor to the broth.
Potatoes
Break down as they cook, thickening the chowder and giving it body.
Corn
Adds sweetness and tender texture to the chowder.
Flour
Lightly coats the layers and thickens the liquid as it cooks.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the finished chowder.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they cook.

The step that matters

Straining the broth through a fine sieve after the onions are cooked. Onions must be fully softened so their texture and flavor blend into the broth, and a fine sieve removes bits that would make the chowder gritty.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, corn, flour, 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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