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Clam Chowder — an American Dish

A layered clam chowder made with pork, clams, potatoes, biscuits, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Clam Chowder — an American Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Fry the pork slices until crisp.

  2. Chop the pork finely.

Layer the pot

  1. Sprinkle a quarter of the chopped pork in the bottom of a pot.

  2. Layer clams on top, sprinkle with red pepper and salt, and add bits of butter.

  3. Add a thin layer of chopped onions and a layer of water biscuits moistened with milk.

  4. Pour some liquid fat from the frying pan over the layers.

  5. Repeat layering with remaining pork, clams, onions, and biscuits until the pot is nearly full.

Stew and serve

  1. Cover with water and stew slowly for 45 minutes, keeping the pot covered.

  2. Drain off excess liquid.

  3. Return the gravy to the pot and thicken with pounded biscuits.

  4. Add white wine, catsup, and spices, and boil once.

  5. Pour over the chowder in a serving tureen.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor and tender texture once gently stewed.
Water biscuits
Thicken the gravy when pounded and add body to the layers.
Fat pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that carries through the layers and gravy.
Milk
Moistens the biscuit layers and adds creaminess to the chowder.
Stewed or tinned tomatoes
Add acidity and color, balancing the richness of the pork and milk.
Onion
Adds aroma and gentle sweetness as it softens in the layers.

The step that matters

Stew slowly with the pot covered. Gentle, covered simmering cooks the clams and pork through without toughening the clams, which turn rubbery when rapidly boiled, and keeps the liquid from reducing too fast.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, clam, milk, biscuit, thyme, marjoram, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clam, milk, biscuit, thyme, marjoram, parsley. 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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