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Corn Chowder

A creamy soup made with bacon, onion, potatoes, corn, celery, butter, milk, and water.

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

Make the chowder base

  1. Slowly fry the bacon until the fat is rendered, then remove the bacon.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until soft, being careful not to burn it.

  3. Add the diced potatoes and water, along with the chopped celery, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cook until the potatoes are very tender and can be mashed with a spoon.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the corn, butter, and milk.

  2. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, then serve.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down when cooked to thicken the chowder and give it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the broth.
Bacon
Its rendered fat carries flavour into the onion and the rest of the chowder.
Onion
Softened slowly, it adds sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Corn
Adds sweetness and bulk, with kernels that add texture to the chowder.

The step that matters

Cook the onion until soft, not browned. Gentle cooking softens the onion and draws out its sweetness. High heat scorches the sugars, producing bitter flavours that carry through the whole chowder.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, pepper, corn, butter, milk. 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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