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Qrebn Corn Chowder

A chowder of salt pork, onions, potatoes, corn and milk, served with crackers if desired.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Qrebn Corn Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pot until browned.

  2. Add the chopped onions and sliced potatoes, then cover with water.

  3. Cook until the potatoes are soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the corn and cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the milk and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve with crackers 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 + 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  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

Salt pork
Renders fat that flavours the pot and gives the base savoury depth.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the chowder as they break down.
Corn
Adds sweetness and body to the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the chowder into a smooth broth.

The step that matters

Cook until the potatoes are soft. Potatoes must be fully tender before the milk goes in, because they thicken the broth as they break down. Undercooked potato stays firm and leaves the chowder grainy and thin.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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