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Salt Fish Chowder

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Salt Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the fish.

  2. Soak the fish in cold water overnight.

  3. Cut the pork into small dice.

Make the pork and onion mixture

  1. Fry the diced pork until crisp and brown.

  2. Add the chopped onions to the pork.

  3. Fry the onions slowly until golden brown.

Layer and simmer

  1. Layer the fish flakes and potatoes in a soup pot.

  2. Sprinkle the layered fish and potatoes with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. Spread some of the onion and pork mixture over the layers.

  4. Add a layer of split crackers.

  5. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are used.

  6. Pour in the cold water.

  7. Bring the chowder to a simmer.

  8. Maintain the simmer for one hour without boiling.

  9. Add the milk.

  10. Cook for an additional 30 minutes, ensuring it does not boil.

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. 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

Dried salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and flaky body of the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the chowder while adding bulk.
Flour
Helps thicken the chowder as it cooks in the liquid.
Salt pork
Renders fat and browns into crisp bits that flavour the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the saltiness of the fish and pork.

The step that matters

Maintain the simmer without boiling. Boiling toughens the fish and can break it into fine shreds, and it can scorch milk added to the pot. A gentle simmer keeps the fish flaky and the milk smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, potato, 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, pork, potato, 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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