Name: Green Corn Chowder
Ingredients: ½ pound clear fat pickled pork, chopped fine; 3 Bermuda onions, chopped fine; 1 quart potatoes, diced; 1 quart sweet tender corn; 1 quart rich milk, scalded; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; Salt and pepper to taste

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 ↓

Green Corn Chowder

Ingredients

½ pound clear fat pickled pork, chopped fine
3 Bermuda onions, chopped fine
1 quart potatoes, diced
1 quart sweet tender corn
1 quart rich milk, scalded
1 egg-sized piece of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the base

Fry the chopped pork in a skillet until very crisp.
Boil the pork and onions in 1 quart of water for 15 minutes.

Cook the vegetables

Add the diced potatoes and boil for another 15 minutes.
Stir in the corn and boil for an additional 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

Add the scalded milk and butter, season to taste, and serve hot.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Fat pickled pork: Renders fat and browned bits that flavour the broth.
Onions: Soften as they cook, adding sweetness to the broth.
Potatoes: Break down slightly as they boil, thickening the chowder and giving body.
Corn: Adds sweetness and tender kernels to the chowder.
Milk: Adds richness and creaminess to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the scalded milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard or is added to a very hot pot. Scalding it first and adding it at the end, off a hard boil, keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, corn, milk, egg, butter, 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.

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Corn Fritters203 recipes

Pork Cake107 recipes

Roast Pork82 recipes

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Green Corn Chowder