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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with fish, potatoes, salt pork, milk, butter, and Boston crackers.

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. In a kettle, cook small pieces of salt pork.

  2. Cut the fish into small pieces and slice the potatoes thinly.

  3. Layer the fish and potatoes alternately with the salt pork.

Cook

  1. Cover with boiling water and cook until soft.

  2. Season to taste and add the onion if desired.

  3. Stir in the milk and butter, then let it boil.

Serve

  1. Add the split Boston crackers just before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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
Provides the main flesh and flavor of the chowder as it cooks into the broth.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savory flavor into the kettle that seasons the whole dish.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Boston crackers
Soak up broth at the end, adding body and a toasty, salty note.

The step that matters

Let the milk boil only after it is stirred in. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the kettle or curdle if it is heated too hard or for too long, so keep the heat controlled once it is added.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, potato, milk, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, potato, 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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