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
Order fish skinned, leaving the head and tail on.
Cut off the head and tail, and remove fish from the backbone.
Cut fish into 2‑inch pieces and set aside.
Make the fish stock
Put the head, tail, and backbone in a stew pan.
Add 2 cups cold water and bring to a boil.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Build the chowder
Fry the salt pork in a pan until the fat is rendered.
Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes.
Strain the fat into the stew pan.
Parboil the potatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and add to the fat.
Add 2 cups boiling water to the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the liquid drained from the bones.
Add the fish.
Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the milk, salt, pepper, and butter.
Serve
Serve very hot.
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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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 body of the chowder as flaky pieces that cook through in the broth.
- Potatoes
- Soften during simmering and thicken the chowder slightly through their starch.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat that carries flavour into the onion and the broth.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a rich, mellow body to the finished chowder.
- Butter
- Adds fat that gives the chowder a smooth, rounded richness.
The step that matters
Adding the milk. Milk scalded and added to a boiling broth can curdle or scorch if it boils hard. Stirring it in off a rolling boil and simmering gently keeps it smooth and creamy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, potato, pork, pepper, butter, milk):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- 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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