Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 thoroughly and place them in a pot with ½ pint of water.

  2. Steam the clams until the shells open, then remove the clams from the shells and chop them finely, saving the clam water.

Make the base

  1. In a frying pan, gently fry the salt pork until browned, then remove the scraps.

  2. In the same pan, fry the chopped onions until delicate, ensuring they do not burn.

  3. Transfer the fried onions to a clean chowder kettle and add 1 quart of hot water, clams, clam water, and pork scraps.

  4. Bring to a boil, then add the potatoes and cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, thicken the chowder with 1 cup of powdered crackers and stir in 1 quart of fresh milk.

  2. If the chowder is too rich, add more water and season with black pepper.

  3. For added flavor, include sliced tomatoes if desired.

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 texture of the chowder.
Salt pork
Adds rendered fat and savory flavor from its browned bits.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and add body and substance to the chowder.
Powdered crackers
Thicken the chowder as they absorb liquid and swell.
Fresh milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with crackers before adding milk. Powdered crackers thicken the liquid by absorbing water and starch as they heat. Stirring them in fully and letting the chowder simmer before the milk goes in helps avoid lumps. Boiling milk hard afterward can cause it to curdle, so keep it just warm.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pork, onion, potato, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

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

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipes