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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of white fish, pork, onions, potatoes, and milk, served over split Boston biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Layer and cook

  1. In a porcelain-lined kettle, layer sliced salt fat pork, onions, potatoes, and fish.

  2. Repeat layers until desired quantity is reached.

  3. Pour in 1 cup of boiling water and cook gently for about 20 minutes until fish and potatoes are tender.

Add milk and serve

  1. Add enough sweet milk to cover the mixture and season with salt if necessary.

  2. Bring to a boil, but do not boil over.

  3. Serve the chowder over split Boston biscuits, garnished with pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon slices.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  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

Haddock or white fish
Forms the main flesh of the chowder, becoming tender and flaky as it cooks.
Salt fat pork
Renders fat into the broth, adding richness and savory flavor.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma into the broth as they cook gently.
Sweet milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, but do not boil over. Once milk is added, rapid boiling can scorch the bottom and cause it to boil over and curdle or separate. Heating gently keeps the milk smooth and the broth creamy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, pork, potato, milk, pepper, parsley, lemon. 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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