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Clam Chowder

A soup made with salt pork, clams, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and flour.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork bits in the bottom of a kettle.

  2. Add the clams and their juice, and par-boil until tender.

Add the potatoes and seasoning

  1. Boil the sliced potatoes in water until tender, then add them and the cooking water to the kettle.

  2. Add enough boiling water to make 3 quarts total.

  3. Season with salt, black pepper, red pepper, and herbs.

  4. Add the chopped onions and sliced tomatoes.

Simmer and thicken

  1. Cook for a long time on low heat, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add a little flour for thickening, being careful not to let it burn.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Summer savory + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 flavor through the chowder and browns the base.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender meat, with their juice adding briny depth.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that soften into the broth and give the chowder substance.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and sweetness that brighten the broth.
Flour
Thickens the broth so it becomes creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour thickens liquid only when it is evenly dispersed and cooked; added in clumps or left over high heat, it scorches on the bottom and gives a raw, burnt taste.

Swap the summer savory

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

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