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Clam Chowder

A creamy soup made with clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, milk, and 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. Cook until the shells open.

  2. Remove the clams from their shells, chop them finely, and reserve the clam water.

Make the chowder

  1. In a frying pan, gently fry the salt pork until browned, then remove the scraps.

  2. In the same pan, fry the chopped onions until delicate, then transfer to a clean chowder kettle.

  3. Add 1 quart of hot water, chopped clams, reserved clam water, and pork scraps to the kettle.

  4. Bring to a boil, then add the potatoes and cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, thicken the chowder with 1 cup of powdered crackers and stir in 1 quart of fresh milk.

  2. If the chowder is too rich, add more water. Season with black pepper and add 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

Quahog clams
Provide the main flavor and texture of the chowder, with their liquid adding briny depth.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor and adds savory richness to the base.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that soften during cooking and give the chowder substance.
Powdered crackers
Thicken the chowder as they absorb liquid and swell.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and crackers just before serving. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils for long, and crackers thicken quickly as they absorb liquid. Adding both at the end keeps the chowder smooth and creamy rather than grainy or split.

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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