Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓
Clam Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the salt pork in a pot until light brown.
Add the chopped onions and cook for about 10 minutes.
Pour in the water and add the sliced potatoes; bring to a boil.
Stir in the can of clams and heat through before serving.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together305 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + clamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Salt pork
- Renders fat that carries flavour through the soup and browns the pot base.
- Onions
- Soften and turn sweet as they cook, adding savoury depth to the broth.
- Raw potatoes
- Release starch as they simmer, giving the soup body and a thicker texture.
- Clams
- Add the main seafood flavour and briny aroma to the broth.
The step that matters
Stir in the clams and heat through only until warmed. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked. Adding them near the end and heating gently keeps them tender.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, clam):
- Onionthe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Asparagusfits less well
- Tomatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, clam. 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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