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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup of clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, and seasonings, simmered for hours and finished with tomato catsup, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

Make the chowder

  1. In a large pot, combine clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add clam juice, milk, and water. Bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 4 hours, adding water if it becomes too thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Half an hour before serving, stir in tomato catsup and Worcestershire sauce.

  2. Just before serving, add sherry and garnish with lemon slices.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 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
Provide the main seafood flavor and body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the chowder and giving it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and soft, mellow sweetness to the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the long simmer.
Crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Simmering with milk and water. Simmering for at least 4 hours at a gentle heat keeps the potatoes and clams tender while the liquid reduces; a hard boil can curdle the milk and toughen the clams. Add water as needed to keep the texture from becoming too thick.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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