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Fish Chowder, I

A creamy codfish chowder with salt pork, onions, flour thickener, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Chowder, I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and fry until brown.

  2. Add the chopped onions and fry until well cooked.

Cook the chowder

  1. Add the codfish cut into large pieces and 2 quarts of water.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes after boiling.

  3. Make a thickening with flour, salt, and pepper mixed with milk until creamy.

  4. Add the thickening to the chowder and boil for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the chowder as it cooks into tender flakes.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor from the pieces fried until brown at the start.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a creamy consistency when mixed with milk and added.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they cook down in the rendered pork fat.

The step that matters

Adding the flour thickening. Flour mixed with milk must be smooth before it goes into the hot chowder, or it clumps. Stirring often while boiling for 10 minutes prevents the starch from settling and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, 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.

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