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
Clean the fish and cut it into 3-inch square pieces.
Layer and cook
In a large pot, fry the salt pork until brown, then add the sliced onions and fry until brown.
Remove the pot from heat and layer the fish on top of the pork and onions.
Sprinkle with pepper and salt, then add a layer of sliced potatoes.
Continue layering fish and potatoes until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of potatoes.
Cover with water and bring to a boil for 30 minutes.
Finish and serve
Add the crushed biscuits or crackers and pour in the milk.
Let it scald well before serving.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat and browns, adding savoury flavour to the base of the pot.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body, thickening the broth and making it heartier.
- Biscuits or crackers
- Absorb liquid and thicken the chowder as they break down.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the broth's flavour into a rich, mild finish.
The step that matters
Let it scald well before serving. Milk should be heated until steaming without boiling hard, since prolonged boiling can cause it to curdle and separate, and the fish should stay tender rather than turn tough.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, potato, pepper, biscuit, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, potato, pepper, biscuit, 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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