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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with cod, potatoes, onions, salt pork, and seasonings, finished with a sea biscuit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and slice the potatoes, then soak the sliced potatoes in cold water.

  2. Peel and slice the onions.

  3. Wash the fish in well-salted cold water, then cut the fish into 1-inch thick slices.

  4. Cut the salt pork into ½-inch dice.

Make the chowder

  1. Place the diced salt pork in a saucepan and fry until browned.

  2. Layer the fish, drained potatoes, and onions in the pot.

  3. Season each layer with salt, pepper, and thyme.

  4. Cover the ingredients with cold water.

  5. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.

  6. Soak the sea biscuit in warm water or milk for 5 minutes, then add it to the chowder.

  7. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

  2. Optionally add chopped parsley.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it simmers.
Salt pork
Renders fat and browns, adding savory richness to the broth.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving body to the chowder.
Sea biscuit
Soaked and added near the end, it thickens the broth further as it breaks down.
Onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after bringing to a boil. Fish is delicate; a hard, rolling boil toughens its protein and breaks the pieces apart, so the chowder should be kept at a gentle simmer once it reaches a boil.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, biscuit, potato, onion, pepper, thyme. 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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