Why it works: Clam and fish work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Clam Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Separate the soft parts from the hard parts of the clams without breaking the soft parts.
Chop the hard parts finely.
Prepare the chowder like fish chowder, using both parts of the clams instead of fish.
Soak the dried salt fish overnight in cold water.
In the morning, rinse the fish and place it in a pot with cold water.
Heat the pot slowly until it comes to a boil, then boil for a few minutes until tender.
Drain the fish, carefully remove the bones, and clean off any dark parts.
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.
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Clam + fishtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50 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
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