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Corn Chowder

A creamy corn chowder made with potatoes, pork, onions, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 base

  1. Cut the pork into small pieces and place in a frying pan over low heat.

  2. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

  3. Strain the fat into a saucepan.

  4. Add the parboiled potatoes to the saucepan.

  5. Add 2 cups of boiling water and cook until the potatoes are soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the corn and milk, and heat to boiling.

  2. Add the butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a soup tureen.

  4. Moisten the crackers in cold milk.

  5. Place the moistened crackers on top of the chowder.

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

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

  3. Potato + porktop 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

Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking to thicken the chowder and give it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the chowder.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavor at the end.
Crackers
Soak up milk and add body to the crowning topping.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and heat to boiling. Once milk is added, boiling it hard can scorch the bottom or cause it to curdle and separate. Keep the heat controlled and stir so the chowder stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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