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Lobster Chowder

A creamy lobster soup with crackers, milk, butter, pork, fish, onions, potatoes, biscuits, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Lobster Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a pot, combine the chopped lobster and pounded crackers with boiling milk.

  2. Add butter, pepper, and salt, then bring to a boil.

  3. In a separate pot, fry thin slices of pork until dry.

Layer and stew

  1. Layer fish, onions, and potatoes on top of the pork, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Place soaked hard biscuits around the sides and over the top.

  3. Add enough water to cover the ingredients, then stew for over 30 minutes until the potatoes are done.

  4. Five minutes before serving, add milk or sweet cream.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Milk + potatotop 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

Lobster
Provides the main flavor and body of the chowder.
Pounded crackers
Thicken the broth as they soak up the hot milk.
Milk
Forms the creamy base and adds richness and softness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Soften during stewing and add starch that thickens the chowder.
Hard biscuits
Soak up liquid and add body, helping thicken the dish.

The step that matters

Stewing until the potatoes are done. Potato slices must be fully tender before serving; stopping early leaves them firm and starchy, while overcooking can break them down and cloud the broth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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