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Potato Chowder

A layered potato chowder with salt pork, onions, and milk, simmered and finished with a flour‑butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice the potatoes and cut the pork into small pieces.

  2. In a frying pan, fry the pork and sliced onion until light brown.

Layer and simmer

  1. In a kettle, layer the potatoes, onions, and pork, sprinkling with salt, pepper, and parsley.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.

  3. Pour the grease from the frying pan over the layers.

  4. Add 1 pint of water, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. In a double boiler, scald the milk and mix in the flour and butter or drippings until smooth.

  2. Add the milk mixture to the pot when the potatoes are tender, stirring carefully.

  3. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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 tender pieces that give body to the broth.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that seasons the potatoes and broth as it cooks.
Milk
Creates the creamy, smooth body of the chowder when added at the end.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the finished chowder has a smoother, heavier texture.
Butter or drippings
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the flour blend smoothly into the milk.

The step that matters

Adding the milk mixture. Stirring the flour into hot milk without lumping keeps it smooth, and adding it only once the potatoes are tender prevents curdling and a pasty texture.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, pork, milk, parsley, butter, 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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