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Clam Chowder, No. 2

A creamy clam chowder with clams, potatoes, onions, pork, and split crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Clam Chowder, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the pork in a pot until nicely browned.

  2. Add the browned pork and its gravy, potatoes, and onion to the pot.

  3. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and flour over the mixture.

  4. Strain the water used to scald the clams over the ingredients in the pot.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the clams and split crackers, then boil for an additional 10 minutes.

  3. Serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 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

Potatoes
Provide starch and body, thickening the chowder as they cook and soften.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a creamy, stew-like consistency.
Pork
Adds savory, browned fat and flavor to the broth.
Clams
Main seafood flavor, added near the end so they cook gently and stay tender.

The step that matters

Adding the clams. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked. Adding them with the crackers and boiling only 10 minutes keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

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