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Another Clam Chowder

A hearty soup made with chicken, clams, potatoes, crackers, onions, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Another Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Boil the chicken in 2 quarts of water until cooked.

  2. Remove the chicken, pick out the bones, and cut the meat into small pieces.

Layer and cook

  1. In a pot, layer chicken, potatoes, clams, crackers, onions, salt pork, salt, and pepper. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.

  2. Skim off the fat from the chicken broth and add clam water if available.

  3. If needed, add enough clear water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil.

  4. Boil for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Serve

  1. In a tureen, add butter and milk, then pour the chowder over it.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its meaty body and savory flavor.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the chowder while adding body.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor, and their liquid adds brininess to the broth.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and break down, helping thicken the chowder.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth as they soften in the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the broth's flavor when stirred in at serving.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then boil for about 20 minutes. Boiling long enough lets the potatoes cook through and soften the crackers, which thickens the chowder. Keeping the liquid covering the ingredients prevents them from drying out or scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, clam, potato, pork, pepper, butter, 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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