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Corn Chowder

A savory soup of potatoes, corn, onions, and salt pork, thickened with cornstarch and milk.

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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. In a skillet, fry the onion, potatoes, and salt pork together until the pork is tender.

  2. Blend the cornstarch with the milk, then add it to the skillet along with salt and pepper.

Add the corn

  1. Cook until the pork is tender, then add the corn.

  2. If using fresh corn, cook the corn and pork first before adding.

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 + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the chowder as they soften and release starch.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy broth when heated.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a tender bite to the finished chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor through the whole chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the chowder base.
Onion
Builds aromatic sweetness as it softens in the rendered pork fat.

The step that matters

Blend the cornstarch with the milk before adding. Cornstarch clumps if dropped directly into hot liquid. Mixing it with cold milk first spreads the starch evenly so it thickens smoothly when heated.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, corn, pork, milk, 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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