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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of cod or haddock, potatoes, onions, salt pork, and milk, simmered with butter, salt, and pepper.

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 the fish

  1. Order fish skinned, leaving the head and tail on.

  2. Cut off the head and tail, and remove the fish from the backbone.

  3. Cut the fish into 2-inch pieces and set aside.

Make the stock

  1. In a stew pan, place the head, tail, and broken backbone.

  2. Add 2 cups of cold water and bring to a boil; cook for 20 minutes.

Cook the chowder

  1. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and fry until crispy.

  2. Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the fat into the stew pan.

  4. Parboil the potatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and add to the fat.

  5. Add 2 cups of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.

  6. Add the liquor drained from the bones, then add the fish.

  7. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

  8. Add the milk, salt, pepper, and butter.

  9. Serve very 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. 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. Butter + milktop 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

Cod or haddock
Forms the flaky body of the chowder as it cooks through gently.
Potatoes
Parboiling starches them and they thicken the broth while holding their shape.
Salt pork
Fried fat carries flavour into the stew pan and seasons the whole pot.
Milk
Adds creamy body and mild sweetness to the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Add the milk at the end without boiling. Milk can curdle or scorch when it boils hard for long, so it should be added after the fish is cooked and heated gently.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, potato, pork, pepper, butter, 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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