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Potato Chowder

A hearty soup made with sliced potatoes, onions, salt pork, flour, and water, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Potato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pot over low heat until light brown.

  2. Add the sliced onions and cook until they are light brown.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer sliced potatoes in a soup kettle, followed by a layer of pork and onions.

  2. Dredge each layer with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. Continue layering until all ingredients are used, then add water.

  4. Bring the chowder to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.

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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the chowder and soften into the broth, giving body and substance.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor and browns the base before liquid is added.
Onions
Browning builds sweetness and savory depth as they cook down into the broth.
Flour
Dusted between layers, it thickens the cooking liquid as the chowder simmers.

The step that matters

Browning the salt pork and onions. Cooking over low heat until light brown renders the pork fat and develops savory flavor through gentle browning. Rushing or overheating can scorch the onions and leave a bitter taste in the finished chowder.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pork, 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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