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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of fish, potatoes, and salt pork, finished with a butter‑cracker milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 base

  1. In a saucepan, fry the salt pork and sliced onion until lightly browned.

Layer and simmer

  1. Butter a large stewpan and layer the potatoes, fish, onion, and pork alternately, finishing with a layer of potatoes on top.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with boiling water and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate pot, bring the milk or cream to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the butter and crushed crackers.

  2. Place the fish and potatoes in the center of a hot platter, pour the milk mixture over the top, and serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and flavour into the dish while its browned pieces add savoury depth.
Fresh fish
Provides the main protein, which flakes into tender pieces as it cooks through.
Potatoes
Absorb the cooking liquid and give the chowder body and a starchy, soft texture.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and creaminess to the finished chowder.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, rich flavour to the milk mixture.
Crushed crackers
Thicken the milk mixture slightly and add body to the broth.

The step that matters

Bringing the milk to a boil. Boiling milk or cream can scorch on the base or curdle if overheated, so remove it from heat promptly once it boils and stir in the butter and crackers gently.

Swap the onion

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

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

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