Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fish Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fry the salt pork in an iron pot until crisp, then remove it, leaving the fat.
Make the chowder
Layer the fish, split crackers, and chopped pork in the pot, seasoning with black and red pepper and chopped onions.
Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.
Cover with water and simmer until the fish is fully cooked.
Thicken and serve
Remove the fish and keep it warm in a serving dish.
Thicken the gravy with flour or rolled crackers and boil briefly.
Pour the thickened gravy over the chowder.
If desired, add catsup, port wine, and lemon juice to the gravy before serving.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Provides the main protein and flakes into the chowder as it cooks through.
- Salt pork
- Its rendered fat carries savory flavor through the pot and browns the base.
- Split crackers
- Absorb liquid and soften, adding body and helping to thicken the broth.
- Flour or rolled crackers
- Starch that thickens the gravy when heated, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the pork fat.
The step that matters
Simmer until the fish is just cooked. Fish proteins set and toughen with prolonged or vigorous heat, so it should be simmered gently until it flakes, then removed to keep it tender.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, onion, pepper, flour, port wine):
- Lemonthe original
- Plumfits about as well
- Limefits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, onion, pepper, flour, port wine. 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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