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Corn Chowder

A hearty chowder made with salt pork, potatoes, onions, corn, and milk, served hot with crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pan until crispy.

  2. Add the diced potatoes and sliced onions to the pot.

  3. Cover with water and boil until the potatoes are tender.

  4. Stir in the can of corn and the milk, and let it boil for a moment.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with round crackers.

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. Potato + corntop 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. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

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

  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

Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the broth, giving the chowder body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savory flavor into the pot as it fries.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a tender, juicy texture to the chowder.

The step that matters

Boiling the milk. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot or separate if it boils hard. Keep the heat moderate and stir once the milk and corn go in, so the chowder stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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