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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with corn, potatoes, salt pork, milk, and butter, finished with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cook the salt pork in a frying pan for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the onion and cook until yellow.

  3. Parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the potatoes to the onion along with the corn and water.

  5. Cook for 20 minutes.

Thicken and finish

  1. Thicken the milk with the butter and flour cooked together.

  2. Combine the mixtures.

  3. Add the cracker crumbs and seasonings.

  4. 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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

Potatoes
Soften during cooking and add body and starch to the chowder.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the chowder is thickened in.
Butter
Carries fat for flavour and cooks with flour to form a roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk when cooked with butter, giving the chowder body.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan and adds savoury, smoky flavour.
Corn
Adds sweetness and bulk to the chowder.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk with the butter and flour cooked together. Cooking butter and flour together into a roux before adding milk lets the starch swell evenly. Adding flour raw can leave lumps and a pasty taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

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