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Congress Chowder

A chowder made with rock cod, salt pork, crackers, potatoes, onions, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Congress Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the scraps of salt pork in a large kettle.

  2. Layer the fish, crackers, potatoes, and onions in the kettle until full.

Cook

  1. Pour in ½ gallon of milk.

  2. Cook over a fire until heated through.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Rock cod
Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks.
Salt pork
Its rendered fat is the frying base and adds savory, smoky flavor.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, giving the chowder body and substance.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet as they cook, adding aroma and depth.
Milk
Provides the creamy liquid base that carries the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Cook over a fire until heated through. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of a kettle over direct heat and can curdle if it boils hard. Gentle, even heat keeps the chowder smooth and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, 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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