Skip to main content
Main

Salt Cod Chowder

A hearty chowder made with codfish, salt pork, potatoes, onions, crackers, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Salt Cod Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pour hot water over the codfish and place it on the back of the stove.

  2. Fry the salt pork in a pan until crispy.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the bottom of a kettle with the fried pork.

  2. Add layers of potatoes, onion, crackers, and codfish.

  3. Season with pepper and cover with boiling water.

  4. Boil for 30 minutes, then add the milk and bring to a boil 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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

Salt cod
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky texture of the chowder.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that thickens the broth as they cook.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor from its rendered drippings.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the saltiness of the fish.

The step that matters

Soaking the codfish. Salt cod is very salty and must be soaked in hot water so it softens and seasons the dish gently. Under-soaked fish makes the chowder overly salty, while the fish needs enough heat to flake without turning tough.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes