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Clam Chowder

A hearty soup of clams, potatoes, pork, onions, tomatoes, spices, and biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the minced pork in a pot until crisp, then remove it.

  2. In the same pot, fry the sliced onion until light brown.

Simmer

  1. Add the sliced potatoes, can of tomatoes, spice bag, cold water, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Cook for four hours.

Finish and serve

  1. After three and a half hours, add the chopped clams and soaked pilot biscuits.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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
Provide the main seafood flavor and tender, chewy bites in the chowder.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, giving the chowder body and thickness.
Fat salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor and gives the base richness.
Pilot biscuits
Soaked in milk, they soften and help thicken the broth.
Onion
Browning in the pork fat builds a sweet, savory aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the clams and biscuits at three and a half hours. Clams turn tough and rubbery when cooked too long, so they go in late, close to the end of the four-hour simmer, to stay tender.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

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