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Clam Chowder with Tomatoes

A tomato-based clam chowder with potatoes, salt pork, onions, clams, and butter, served over buttered crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil sliced potatoes for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain potatoes.

  3. Render salt pork fat in a pot.

  4. Add sliced onion.

  5. Combine clams with cold water in a bowl.

  6. Remove any bits of shell.

  7. Strain clam juice through cheesecloth.

  8. Scald clams in the juice.

  9. Keep clams hot.

Make the chowder

  1. Mix flour and butter together.

  2. Gradually add strained clam liquor.

  3. Heat to a boil.

  4. Add potatoes.

  5. Add more water if needed.

  6. Cook until tender.

  7. Stir in canned tomatoes.

  8. Stir in small bits of butter.

  9. Add clams.

  10. Let it boil briefly.

  11. Season with salt.

  12. Add optional herbs.

Serve

  1. Pour over buttered crackers in a tureen.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Become tender and give the chowder body and substance as they cook.
Salt pork
Its rendered fat carries flavor into the pot and seasons the base.
Clams
Supply the main seafood flavor, and are kept hot so they stay tender.
Canned tomatoes
Add acidity and color, giving the chowder its tomato flavor.
Flour
Thickens the clam liquor into a smooth, body-rich broth with the butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavor of the broth.

The step that matters

Scald the clams without overcooking. Clams toughen and turn rubbery when boiled too long. Heating them only until they open and are hot keeps them tender when they are added later to the boiling chowder.

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pork, onion, clam, flour, butter, tomato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

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