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Irish Fish Chowder with Soda Bread

Loaded with different types of fish, this simple chowder recipe stands or falls on the freshness of the ingredients. Serve with traditional soda bread.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and pollock share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 2 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Mix both flours, the bicarbonate of soda and the salt in a large bowl. Whisk the buttermilk, egg and honey together, then stir into the flour to make a soft dough.

  2. Knead the dough briefly on a floured surface, shape into a round on a lined baking tray, cut a deep cross on top and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped.

  3. Peel and dice the potato. Finely chop the onion, shallot and garlic. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-low heat and soften the onion, shallot and garlic for 5 minutes without browning.

  4. Add the diced potato, bay leaf and milk. Simmer gently for 15 minutes until the potato is tender, then stir in the sweetcorn.

  5. Cut the smoked haddock and pollock into chunks, add to the pan and simmer gently for 4 minutes until the fish is opaque and flakes, reaching 145°F (63°C).

  6. Slice the runner beans, drop them into a pan of boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain. Steam the clams in a pan with a splash of water until open, discarding any that stay shut.

  7. Add the scallops, king prawns, runner beans and clams to the chowder and poach gently for 3 to 4 minutes until the scallops and prawns are opaque, reaching 145°F (63°C).

  8. Stir in the chopped parsley and season generously with black pepper. Ladle into warm bowls and serve with the warm soda bread, sliced.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Buttermilk + pollocktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Haddock + pollocktop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Potato + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Honey + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,333 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Flour + buttermilktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, buttermilk, egg, honey, potato, haddock, milk):

  1. Chivebetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, buttermilk, egg, honey, potato, haddock, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).