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Clam Chowder

A layered clam chowder with pork, onions, potatoes, crackers, pepper, salt, and hot milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the pork in an iron pot.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the potatoes and onions in the pot.

  2. Add a layer of broken crackers, then sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are used.

  4. Cook until the potatoes are done, adding the clams in the last half hour.

Finish

  1. Just before serving, stir in the hot milk.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and the chowder's signature taste.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the chowder as they cook and soften.
Pork
Renders fat into the pot, adding savory richness for frying the base.
Broken crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they break down.
Hot milk
Adds creaminess and smooth richness to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the clams in the last half hour. Clams turn tough and rubbery when overcooked, so they should be added late and cooked only until they open and heat through.

Swap the onion

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

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

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