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Maryland Chowder

A seafood chowder made with cod or haddock, oysters or clams, water crackers, butter, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Maryland Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the fish and cut it into uniform pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the water and onion.

Layer and stew

  1. Layer half of the fish skin side down, then sprinkle with half the salt, pepper, mace, and cayenne.

  2. Add half of the oysters or clams, half of the butter in small lumps, and half of the crackers.

  3. Repeat the layers with the remaining fish, oysters, seasoning, butter, and crackers.

  4. Pour the cream over the top after boiling it.

  5. If the oysters or clams have a lot of liquid, you may not need the water; add more if the chowder is too dry.

  6. Cover and stew for half an hour.

Serve

  1. Serve on a platter.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the chowder, becoming tender and flaky as it stews.
Water crackers
Soften in the liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries the seasonings through the dish.
Oysters or clams
Contribute briny, savoury flavour and their own liquid to the chowder.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow body to the broth.

The step that matters

Pour in the cream after boiling it. Cream that is boiled before adding keeps its texture and is less likely to curdle or separate when it meets the hot chowder, giving a smooth finish.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, oyster, cream, onion, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, oyster, cream, onion, 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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