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Fish Chowder

A stew of sliced cod, potatoes, fat salt pork, split crackers, and flour thickened in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the sliced potatoes in cold water.

  2. Layer the bottom of a stew kettle with fat salt pork.

Layer and season

  1. Add slices of fish, then a layer of split crackers, followed by potatoes, repeating layers until the kettle is full.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and pepper.

  3. Add 1 quart of water.

Stew

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of flour with ½ pint of water and pour it in after the stew begins to simmer.

  2. Cover tightly and stew for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that thickens the broth and gives the chowder its body as they soften.
Fresh cod
Forms the flaky fish layers that become tender during the long stew.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries into the broth.
Split crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they break down.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother, heavier broth.

The step that matters

Pour in the flour mixture after the stew begins to simmer. Flour mixed with water must be added to liquid that is already simmering and stirred in evenly, or it can clump and thicken unevenly. Adding it at a simmer lets the starch swell smoothly into the broth.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour. 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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