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
Render the salt pork in a frying pan until brown.
Combine the pork, potatoes, onions, and water in a large pot.
Add the fish and finish
Boil the fish until tender, then let it cool and remove all bones.
Add the fish to the pot and season with salt and pepper.
Stir in the milk and boil for 10 minutes.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Salt pork
- Renders fat and browned bits that flavour the chowder base.
- Potatoes
- Soften as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
- Onions
- Cook down to add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
- Fish (in the method)
- Cooks through to tender flakes that give the chowder its main substance.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the finished broth.
The step that matters
Stir in the milk and boil for 10 minutes. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils too hard or too long over direct heat. Keeping it at a steady simmer and stirring helps it stay smooth and creamy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, pepper, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, pepper, milk. 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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