Name: Clam Chowder
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup grated bread crumbs or cracker crumbs; pepper to taste; 50 clams, cleaned; 1 cup milk or water; ½ pound soda biscuits

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Clam Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a deep tin basin.

Layer and bake

Layer half of the bread crumbs or cracker crumbs in the basin.
Sprinkle with pepper and bits of butter.
Add a double layer of clams and season with pepper and butter.
Add another layer of crumbs, followed by more clams.
Finish with a layer of bread crumbs or soaked cracker.
Pour in the milk or water.
Cover with a plate and bake for 45 minutes.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + clamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together840 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together841 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Clams: Provide the main seafood flavor and substance of the dish.
Bread crumbs or cracker crumbs: Form the layers that absorb liquid and give the dish body.
Milk or water: Supplies moisture that steams the layers as they bake.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the layers.

“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.