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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of fish, potatoes, onions, and herbs simmered in water and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into small pieces.

  2. Fry the onion in the salt pork until soft.

Make the chowder

  1. Add the garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne, and black pepper; simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. Pour in the boiling water and add the fish, tomatoes, and potatoes.

  3. Season to taste, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. If desired, stir in the milk before serving.

Serve

  1. Place oyster crackers in a bowl and pour the chowder over them. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and becomes tender as it simmers.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and adding body.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor from the start into the onion and broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savory depth to the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the broth's flavor when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. If milk boils for long, its proteins can curdle and separate, so it is best stirred in at the end over gentle heat, just before serving.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, milk, garlic, parsley, thyme, pork):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Fennelfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, milk, garlic, parsley, thyme, pork. 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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