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Salt Fish Chowder

A creamy chowder made with salted fish, tomatoes, flour, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak small pieces of fish in cold water until soft.

  2. Pour off the water and add enough cold water to cover the fish.

  3. Add ½ pint of tomatoes and bring to a scald.

Make the chowder

  1. Mix 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 cup of milk, then add to the pot.

  2. Once it boils, add 1 quart of hot milk.

Serve

  1. Serve in a tureen with a piece of butter on top.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, lightly body-rich chowder.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour blend smoothly and giving a rounded flavor.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the chowder and adds sweetness and body.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and a fresh, slightly tart flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and butter mixture. Flour mixed into cold milk before adding to hot liquid helps prevent lumps. If it is dropped in dry or added to a boiling pot without being blended smooth, it can clump and make the chowder grainy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, butter, 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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