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 ↓
Fish Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the salt pork in an iron pot until crisp, then remove it, leaving the fat.
Layer fish, split crackers, sliced potatoes, chopped pork, black and red pepper, and chopped onions in the pot.
Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of bread crumbs on top.
Cover with water and stew slowly until the fish is cooked through.
Remove from heat, transfer to a serving dish, and keep warm.
Thicken the gravy with flour, boil it once, and pour over the chowder.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, potato, pepper, bread, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, potato, pepper, bread, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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