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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, salt pork, onions, butter, milk, and 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 clams with a small brush and place them in a large kettle with ½ cup water. Set over fire and cook until the top clams open.

  2. Remove from heat. Skim off the clams and let cool.

  3. Remove the clams from their shells, discarding the skin and cutting off the black ends. Cut the long strips into pieces, leaving the soft part whole.

  4. Let the clam liquor settle. Pour off carefully, using half liquor and half water.

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the pork and onions in a skillet.

  2. Add the pre-boiled potatoes.

  3. Once the potatoes are soft, add the clam liquor, seasoning, and clams.

  4. When heated through, add hot milk.

  5. Transfer to a tureen.

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. 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 texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that give the chowder its substance.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor into the onions and base.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth when fried with the pork.
Butter crackers
Thicken the broth slightly and add a toasty, savory note.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk. Milk curdles or scorches if it boils hard, so it should be heated gently and added once the chowder is hot but not boiling, keeping the soup smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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