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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup of clams, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and crackers, flavored with salt pork and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, place the diced salt pork and cook until fat is rendered.

  2. Partially cook the onions in the pork fat, then remove and set aside.

  3. Layer the clams, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and pilot crackers in the pot.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with water.

  5. Bring to a boil and cook for 1.5 hours.

  6. Add chopped parsley to taste before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 flavour through the chowder.
Clams
Provide the main shellfish flavour and texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth as they cook and give the chowder body.
Pilot crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften in the pork fat.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a bright, tangy note to the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil and cook for 1.5 hours. Clams turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, so the long simmer must be managed carefully. Potatoes need enough time to become tender and release starch that thickens the broth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Okrafits about as well

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