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German Chowder

A chowder made with haddock, potatoes, crackers, and a butter‑flour milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

German Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish stock

  1. Clean, skin, and bone the fish.

  2. Add the fish to the bones, cold water, and vegetables, and let simmer for twenty minutes.

  3. Strain the stock from the bones.

Make the fish balls

  1. Chop the fish meat; there should be one and one‑half cups.

  2. Add the cracker, seasonings, melted butter, and egg, then shape into small balls.

Make the chowder

  1. Try out the pork, add onion, and cook for five minutes.

  2. Strain, and add to the fat, potatoes, balls, and fish stock, and cook until the potatoes are soft.

  3. Thicken the milk with butter and flour cooked together.

  4. Combine the mixtures, and season highly with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  5. Add the crackers, split and soaked in cold milk.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1449Calories
86 gProtein
43 gFat
175 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 16 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Haddock100g cooked112
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the chowder and the fish balls, giving flavour and substance.
Flour
Cooked with butter to make a roux that thickens the milk.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and add body and starch to the chowder.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that is thickened and combined with the stock.
Eggs
Bind the fish and cracker mixture so it holds its shape in the balls.
Crackers
Bind the fish balls and, soaked in milk, thicken and enrich the chowder.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk with butter and flour cooked together. Flour must be cooked with the butter before the milk is added; otherwise it stays raw-tasting and clumps instead of thickening smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, carrot, parsley, pepper, butter, egg, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, carrot, parsley, pepper, butter, egg, potato. 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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