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Clam Chowder Coney Island

A creamy clam chowder made with salt pork, tomatoes, potatoes, clams, onions, water, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Coney Island

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the salt pork or bacon and onions into small pieces.

  2. Fry the pork and onions until brown.

Make the chowder

  1. In a large pot, combine the tomatoes, fried pork, onions, chopped clams, and clam juice.

  2. Add water, salt, pepper, thyme, flour, and broken crackers.

  3. Stew all ingredients together slowly for 1 hour.

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. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork or bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor as it renders and browns with the onions.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and liquid that give the chowder its tangy base.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture.
Irish potatoes
Add starch and body as they soften during slow stewing.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma when fried until brown.

The step that matters

Stew all ingredients together slowly for 1 hour. A gentle, slow simmer lets the flavors blend and keeps the clams tender, while a hard boil can toughen them and break down the mixture unevenly.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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