Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, butter, flour, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare

  1. Mince the clams finely.

  2. Boil the minced clams until tender.

  3. Chop the potatoes finely.

  4. Chop the onions finely.

Make the chowder

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until combined.

  3. Add the minced clams to the saucepan.

  4. Add about 2 quarts of clam juice.

  5. Add the chopped potatoes and onions to the mixture.

  6. Cook until the potatoes and onions are done.

  7. Stir in the parsley.

  8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  9. 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. 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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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 seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thicken the chowder and give it a hearty texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor as the base for the roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and clam juice into a smooth, creamy base.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour until combined. Flour must be fully mixed into the melted butter before liquid is added. Cooking the butter and flour together forms a roux, and whisking it smooth prevents lumps and a pasty, uneven thickening of the chowder.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, butter, flour, 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.

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes