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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup of corn, potatoes, salt pork, onions, and crackers, finished with cream or 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the potatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes and drain.

  2. Render the fat from the salt pork.

  3. Brown the onion in the pork fat.

Make the chowder

  1. Add the fat to 1 quart of boiling water.

  2. Cook the onion and potatoes in the water until tender.

  3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the cream or milk and corn, cooking for 5 minutes without boiling.

  5. Stir in the broken crackers and 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. Onion + potatotop 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor into the broth and browns the onion.
Potatoes
Soften and thicken the broth as they cook, giving the chowder body.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and bulk to the chowder.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and thicken the chowder slightly at the end.

The step that matters

Add the cream or milk and corn without boiling. Boiling dairy can curdle or separate it, leaving a grainy texture. Holding the chowder just below a boil keeps the cream smooth and its flavor fresh.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, pork, cream, potato, 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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