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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, butter, flour, and milk, served over crackers.

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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clams

  1. Wash the clams until clean and place them in a kettle with 1 quart of cold water.

  2. Cook until the top clams open.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Skim out the clams.

  5. Pour the liquid into a dish to settle.

  6. Once cool, cut off the heads of the clams with scissors.

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the onion in the salt pork until brown.

  2. Remove the onion and pork.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and the clam liquor, pouring carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment.

  4. When the potatoes are soft, add the clams, seasonings, and hot milk.

  5. Add more water if desired.

  6. Melt the butter.

  7. Stir in the flour.

  8. Add the mixture to the chowder or to the hot milk before combining.

Serve

  1. Place crackers in a tureen.

  2. Pour the chowder over the crackers.

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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 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. Pepper + potatotop 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 texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and substance as they soften in the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the mixture with butter to give the chowder body.
Milk
Creates a creamy base that carries the chowder's flavor.
Salt pork
Renders fat and flavor that season the onion and base.

The step that matters

Pouring off the clam liquor. Clam liquor settles sediment of sand and grit at the bottom. Pouring slowly and leaving that sediment behind keeps the chowder smooth rather than gritty.

Swap the onion

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

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

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