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Clam Chowder

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 clams

  1. Wash the clams thoroughly and place them in a pot with ½ pint of water.

  2. Cook until the shells open, then remove the clams from the shells and chop finely, saving the clam water.

Make the base

  1. In a frying pan, gently fry the salt pork until browned. Remove the pork scraps from the pan.

  2. Add the chopped onions to the pan and fry until delicate.

  3. In a clean chowder kettle, combine the hot water, clams, clam water, and pork scraps.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Add the potatoes and cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, thicken the chowder with the powdered crackers.

  2. Stir in the fresh milk.

  3. If the chowder is too rich, add more water.

  4. Season with black pepper.

  5. Stir in sliced tomatoes if desired.

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 + 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Clams (quahogs)
Provide the main flavor and texture of the chowder.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it browns and renders into the base.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that soften into the broth as they cook.
Powdered crackers
Thicken the chowder as their starch absorbs liquid.
Fresh milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with crackers. Powdered crackers thicken through starch that absorbs liquid and swells. Adding them just before serving and not boiling vigorously keeps the texture smooth rather than gluey or pasty, and helps the milk stay from curdling.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, pork, onion, potato, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

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