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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of cod or haddock, potatoes, onions, salt pork, crackers, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Prepare

  1. Fry the salt pork in a chowder kettle until brown, then remove the pork but leave the fat in the kettle.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the potatoes, fish, onions, slices of pork, and crackers in the kettle, seasoning with pepper and salt between layers.

  2. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of crackers on top.

  3. Add enough water to just cover the layers and boil until the potatoes are tender.

  4. Stir in the milk and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth and gives the chowder its body.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the kettle and adds savoriness.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften during boiling.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth once stirred in.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and boil for an additional 10 minutes. Milk can scorch or curdle if it boils too hard for too long on the kettle bottom. Keep the heat moderate after adding it so the broth stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, pork, potato, oyster, pepper, milk. 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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