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 ↓
Clam Chowder No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Fry the salt pork in a kettle until the fat is extracted.
Add the chopped onion and cook until brown.
Layer and simmer
Layer the diced potatoes, clams, and broken crackers in the kettle, seasoning each layer as you go.
Pour in the clam liquor and add the hot milk on top.
Let it boil for 20 minutes and serve as soup.
Add a dash of red pepper for extra flavor.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Pork + clamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together305 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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 cooks the onion and adds savory, salty flavor to the chowder.
- Clams
- Provide the main seafood flavor and tender chewy texture in the chowder.
- Irish potatoes
- Soften during boiling and thicken the chowder while adding body.
- Crackers
- Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder into a creamy body.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess, richness, and mild sweetness to the broth.
The step that matters
Boiling after adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch when it boils hard for a long time. Keep the heat steady so the chowder simmers gently and stays smooth.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, clam, potato, milk, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clam, potato, 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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