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Clam Soup

A hearty soup made with salt pork, onions, potatoes, clams, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pot until light brown.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook for about 10 minutes.

  3. Pour in the water and add the sliced potatoes; bring to a boil.

  4. Add the can of clams.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix the flour with a little water, then stir it into the soup along with the milk.

  2. Let the soup boil for about 5 minutes.

  3. Season with butter, pepper, coarse sea salt, and Worcestershire sauce to taste.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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 savory flavor through the broth and browns the onion.
Potatoes
Starch that softens during boiling and gives the soup body and a thicker texture.
Clams
Main seafood ingredient that supplies the characteristic briny, sea-like flavor.
Flour
Starch that thickens the milk and broth into a smoother, creamier consistency.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the flavor and texture of the broth.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma as it cooks, building the soup's flavor base.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour must be mixed smoothly with water before stirring in, or it clumps and won't thicken evenly. Boiling afterward fully cooks the starch so it thickens and loses any raw floury taste.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, clam, flour, milk, butter, 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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