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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with canned corn, potatoes, pork, onion, milk, crackers, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Prepare 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.

Make the chowder

  1. Strain the fat into a saucepan and add the parboiled potatoes.

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

  3. Stir in the corn and milk, and heat until boiling.

  4. Add the butter, salt, and pepper.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a soup tureen, moisten the crackers in cold milk, and place on top.

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

Potatoes
Provide starch and body, thickening the chowder as they soften.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rich texture to the broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a tender bite to the chowder.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavour through the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavour at the end.

The step that matters

Heating the milk until boiling. Milk can scorch or curdle on the bottom of the pan when overheated, so stir constantly and keep the heat controlled once the corn and milk are combined.

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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