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Fish Chowder

A soup made with fish, potatoes, onions, and pork, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Make the broth

  1. Boil the fish until cooked through.

  2. Cook the potatoes and onion slowly in the fish broth.

Finish the chowder

  1. Fry the pork until crispy.

  2. Add the bones and skin.

  3. Combine the pork mixture with the potatoes and onions, chopped finely.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down slightly and release starch, giving the chowder body and thickness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rich mouthfeel to the broth.
Onion
Cooked slowly, it turns mild and sweet, adding aroma to the base.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, savoury richness to the dish.
Pork
Frying renders fat and browns the meat, adding crisp texture and savoury flavour.
Fish
Provides the main flesh and flavour, and its cooking liquid becomes the broth.

The step that matters

Boil the fish until cooked through. Fish protein sets quickly and turns dry and tough if it boils too long. Check it often and stop once the flesh flakes easily.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter, fish, pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, fish, pork, pepper. 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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