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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, and milk.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chowder

  1. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and fry lightly in a stew pan.

  2. Slice the onions and potatoes, then add them to the pan along with the strained liquor from the clams.

  3. Cook gently for a short time, then add some of the milk and cook until the pork and vegetables are done.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the clams and the remaining milk, bring to a boil, and serve after 15 minutes.

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. Clam + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Clam + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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 tender texture once added near the end.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan, adding savory richness and browning for flavor.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the chowder and giving it body.
Milk
Forms the creamy base and adds richness and sweetness to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the pork fat.

The step that matters

Adding the clams and boiling. Clams become tough and rubbery when overcooked. Adding them late and bringing the chowder only to a boil keeps them tender, while boiling milk too hard can scorch or curdle it.

Swap the onion

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

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

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