Skip to main content
Main

Clam Chowder

A soup made with clams, potatoes, onions, salt pork, flour, butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Start the base

  1. Fry the salt pork slowly in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook for three minutes.

  3. Pour in the boiling water.

Finish the chowder

  1. Add the clams, sliced potatoes, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer for thirty minutes.

  3. Mix the flour with a little water to make a paste.

  4. Add the paste along with the milk to the pot.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  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

Clams
The main seafood, providing the chowder's characteristic flavor and texture.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and adding body.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries savory flavor into the onions and broth.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet in the rendered fat, building the base flavor.
Flour
Thickens the milk and broth into a creamy, smooth consistency.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Mix the flour into a paste before adding it. Flour added dry clumps in hot liquid, because its starch granules coat each other before they can disperse. Mixing it with a little cold water first lets the starch spread evenly, so the chowder thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clam, potato, flour, butter, 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.

More clam chowder recipes

Baked 5New England 5Coney Island 3Manhattan 3 See all 243 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes