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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup of pork, onions, potatoes, corn, milk, butter, and crackers simmered in broth.

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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a saucepan, fry the pork pieces until nicely browned, then remove them.

  2. In the same fat, fry the sliced onions until golden.

  3. Add the hot water and boil until the onions are thoroughly cooked, then strain the broth through a fine sieve.

Cook the chowder

  1. In a saucepan, layer the sliced potatoes and corn, sprinkling each layer lightly with flour and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the strained broth over the layers, cover, and boil for 30 minutes until the corn and potatoes are cooked.

  3. Stir in the boiled milk, butter, and soaked crackers, cover, and cook for an additional 10 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. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  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

Fat pork
Browns in the pan to give the broth a savory, rich flavor base.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the chowder and adding body.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and tender texture to the chowder.
Flour
Sprinkled between layers, it helps thicken the broth as it cooks.
Milk
Added at the end to make the chowder creamy and smooth.
Crackers
Soaked and stirred in, they add body and help thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Strain the onion broth thoroughly. Straining through a fine sieve removes onion solids and fat particles, giving a clear, smooth broth. Cooking onions fully first softens their sharpness and sweetens the base, so the final chowder tastes mellow rather than harsh.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, corn, flour, pepper, milk, butter. 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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