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Clam Chowder

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 and pork

  1. Place clams in a colander over a bowl and pour cold water over them.

  2. Heat the clam liquor to boiling and strain it.

  3. Chop the hard part of the clams and set aside the soft part.

  4. Render the fat from the salt pork in a stew pan.

  5. Add sliced onion to the pan and fry for 5 minutes.

  6. Strain the fat into the stew pan.

Build the chowder

  1. Layer potatoes in the stew pan.

  2. Add half of the chopped clams to the potatoes.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Dredge with flour.

  5. Repeat the layers.

  6. Pour in boiling water.

  7. Cook until the potatoes are soft.

  8. Add milk.

  9. Heat to boiling.

  10. Stir in the soft part of the clams and butter.

Finish with crackers and thickening

  1. Split the crackers and soak them in cold milk.

  2. Add the soaked crackers to the chowder.

  3. Let the chowder sit on the back of the stove until heated through.

  4. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and mix with 1 tablespoon of flour.

  5. Pour in the reserved clam water.

  6. Add this to the chowder just before serving.

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

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

  4. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  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

Clams
Provide the main flavor and the chewy, briny texture of the chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor through the onions and potatoes.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, becoming soft and giving the chowder substance.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the clam flavor.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and soften, helping to thicken the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a creamy consistency when mixed with butter.

The step that matters

Stir in the soft part of the clams and butter. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when overheated, so the soft part should be added near the end and not boiled for long.

Swap the onion

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

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

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