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Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, bacon, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the base

  1. Wash, drain, and chop the clams.

  2. Fry the bacon or pork and onions until lightly browned.

  3. Add the potatoes and tomatoes, barely cover with cold water, and add salt and pepper.

  4. Cook gently for about 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the clams and adjust seasoning if necessary.

  2. Continue to cook slowly for 10 to 15 minutes, then serve.

  3. If desired, thicken the chowder by adding crushed cracker crumbs.

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, adding body and starch that thickens the broth slightly.
Bacon or pork
Renders fat during frying, adding savoury richness to the base.
Onions
Soften and brown lightly, adding sweetness and aroma to the base.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Cook gently after adding the water. Cooking slowly at a low simmer keeps the potatoes intact and prevents the broth from boiling hard. Vigorous boiling breaks potato pieces down unevenly and can make the clams tough once they are added.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

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