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Catfish Chowder

A soup made with catfish, bacon, onions, milk, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Catfish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, cook the bacon with enough water for the chowder for 2 hours before dinner.

  2. Dip the catfish in hot water to remove the skin, then cut into small pieces.

  3. Add the catfish to the pot with the bacon and boil until cooked through.

  4. Remove all bones from the fish, then add the chopped onions, thickening, salt, and pepper.

  5. Once the onions are cooked, stir in the milk, beaten egg yolks, and butter.

  6. Serve the chowder hot, garnished with parsley if desired.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Catfish + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Catfish
Provides the main body and flesh of the chowder.
Fat bacon
Renders fat into the water, adding savoury flavour to the broth.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the chowder, adding body and a smoother texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.
Onions
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks gently. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot. Stir them in off the heat or over low heat, after the milk is added, so the chowder stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, onion, pepper, milk, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, onion, pepper, milk, egg, butter. 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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