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Fish Chowder

A soup made with fish, potatoes, salt pork, onions, crackers, water, milk, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 the base

  1. Cook the fish first.

  2. In a pot, boil the sliced potatoes in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes.

  3. Cut the salt pork into bits and cook until browned.

  4. Add the finely sliced onions and fry slowly.

  5. Spread the cooked pork and onions over the fish and cover until ready.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. Stir the flour into the remaining fat in the pan and cook until browned.

  2. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Add 1 quart of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Remove the milk from the pan, split the crackers, and let boil once.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and flavors the broth as it cooks.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving it body.
Salt pork
Its rendered fat carries flavor and browns to add savory depth.
Onions
Frying slowly builds sweetness and aroma into the fat base.
Flour
Cooked in the fat, it thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the fat and cook until browned. Flour must cook in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken smoothly. Adding liquid too early or without stirring can cause lumps and a pasty flavor.

Swap the onion

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

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

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