Skip to main content
Main

Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of fish, potatoes, onions, and crackers, cooked with pork fat and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 base

  1. In a kettle, place pieces of fat salt pork and render the fat, then remove the scraps.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer fish, potatoes, onions, and split soda crackers in the kettle, seasoning with pepper and coarse sea salt between layers.

  2. Continue layering until all ingredients are used.

  3. Pour in just enough water or milk to reach the top when pressed down.

  4. Cook until the onions are tender without stirring.

  5. Add milk to cover the mixture well and a good-sized piece of butter.

Serve

  1. Serve 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. 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

Fat salt pork
Rendered fat adds savory flavour to the broth and the layers above it.
Potatoes
Starch thickens the liquid slightly and gives the chowder body.
Boston soda crackers
Absorb liquid and break down, thickening the chowder and adding body.
Fish
Provides the main protein and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Cook until the onions are tender without stirring. Stirring breaks up the layered fish and potatoes and can scorch the bottom of the kettle. Gentle, undisturbed cooking keeps the layers intact while the onions soften fully.

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.

More fish chowder recipes

New England 5Salt 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipes