Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Fish Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Layer the chowder
Place cod at the bottom of a soup kettle, season with pepper and salt.
Layer sliced onions and buttered crackers on top of the cod, buttered sides down.
Repeat layering until all ingredients are in the pot, then cover with cold water.
Stew and strain
Stew gently for 1 hour, replenishing water from a tea kettle to maintain the level.
Remove the fish with a perforated skimmer and keep warm in a tureen.
Strain the chowder to remove bones, returning the crackers and liquid to the kettle.
Thicken and serve
Thicken the chowder with corn starch mixed in 1 cup of milk, then boil.
Add oysters, 2 tablespoons of butter, and chopped parsley; stew for 3 minutes.
Pour the chowder over the fish in the tureen and serve with sliced lemon.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
- Cod
- Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it stews gently.
- Oysters
- Add briny flavor and a soft, delicate texture when stewed briefly at the end.
- Onions
- Release sweetness and aromatic flavor into the broth as they stew.
- Boston crackers
- Soak up cooking liquid and thicken the broth while adding body and buttery richness.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the milk-and-broth mixture so the chowder becomes creamy and lightly body-rich.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the thickened chowder.
The step that matters
Thicken with corn starch before boiling. Cornstarch must be mixed into cold milk first, otherwise it clumps. Once it reaches a boil, starch granules swell and gelatinize, thickening the chowder evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, pepper, milk, parsley, corn):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pepper, milk, parsley, corn. 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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