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Clam Chowder

A thick soup of clams, potatoes, onions, and salt pork simmered in milk and clam juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chowder

  1. In a large pot, combine clams, clam juice, potatoes, milk, onions, water, and salt pork.

  2. Boil slowly for at least four hours, adding water if it becomes too thick.

  3. Half an hour before serving, stir in tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with lemon slices on the side.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 bulk of the chowder.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savory flavor into the long-simmered broth.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Tomato ketchup
Adds acidity and sweet tomato depth to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and add water as needed. A slow simmer keeps the milk from scorching and the clams from toughening, while the potatoes break down gradually. Adding water as the chowder thickens prevents it from becoming pasty or sticking to the pot.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, potato, milk, onion, pork, butter, 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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