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Corn Chowder

A hearty soup made with onions, pork, potatoes, corn, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the chopped onions and pork in a pan until cooked.

  2. Boil the diced potatoes in water until soft.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the corn, cooked pork, and onions to the potatoes.

  2. Pour in the milk and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 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. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Soften and thicken the chowder as they break down, giving body to the broth.
Pork
Adds savoury, browned flavour from frying, plus fat that carries aroma through the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the chowder and adds richness and a mild sweetness.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the chowder.
Onions
Build aromatic sweetness and depth when fried until cooked.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot and curdle or form a skin if overheated. Heat it gently and stir so the chowder stays smooth and does not catch.

Swap the onion

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

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

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