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Cod Chowder

A hearty cod stew with salt pork, onions, crackers, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cod Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Layer and stew

  1. In a soup pot, layer a double handful of cod, followed by salt pork, sliced onion, and pepper. Cover the layers with crushed crackers and repeat until all ingredients are used.

  2. Add enough cold water to cover the ingredients, then cover the pot with a lid. Stew gently for about an hour after the boil begins, until the fish is tender.

Strain and serve

  1. Remove the fish and crackers with a slotted spoon and place them in a tureen.

  2. Strain the broth through a colander to remove bones, then return it to the kettle. Heat the strained broth on the stove.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into tender pieces during stewing.
Boston crackers
Layered with the fish, they soften in the broth and help thicken it.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, rich seafood flavor to the chowder.
Corn starch
Thickens the broth as it heats, giving it body.

The step that matters

Stewing gently after the boil begins. A hard boil can break the cod apart and make the broth cloudy. Gentle heat keeps the fish in tender pieces until it is fully cooked.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, pork, butter, corn, oyster, milk):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, pork, butter, corn, oyster, milk. 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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