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Fish Chowder

A layered fish chowder with trout, salt pork, onions, potatoes, cracker crumbs, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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. Skin the fish and cut the meat into thin slices.

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

  3. Slice the onions and fry them with the pork.

  4. Slice the potatoes.

Assemble and cook

  1. In a pot, layer the potatoes, fish, onions, and cracker crumbs until all ingredients are used.

  2. Season with red and black pepper, and place bits of butter on top.

  3. Pour in enough milk to cover the layers and cook until well done.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Butter + milktop 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

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and provides its flaky, savory character.
Salt pork
Renders fat that flavors the onions and pork bits added to the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking to thicken the chowder and add body.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the milk into a creamy base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the chowder a smooth finish.

The step that matters

Cooking the layers in milk until well done. Milk can scorch or curdle if heated too hard, so it should simmer gently. Cooking long enough lets the potatoes soften fully and the crumbs thicken the liquid, while the fish stays tender rather than toughening.

Swap the onion

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

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

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