Skip to main content
Main

Fish Chowdeb

A hearty soup of cod, salt pork, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, peppers, parsley, and biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Fish Chowdeb

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the salt pork in a pot until browned.

  2. Add the cod, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, red peppers, and parsley to the pot.

  3. Stir in the crushed tea biscuits, thyme, celery salt, and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Add enough water to cover the ingredients.

  5. Boil for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavour into the pot and browns the base.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during long simmering, thickening the broth and adding body.
Tea biscuits
Crushed biscuits absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Onions
Soften and sweeten during cooking, building the savoury base.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and bright flavour that balances the rich pork fat.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, vigorous boil breaks the potatoes down and can overcook the fish into fragments. Stirring keeps starches and solids from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, tomato, potato, pepper, parsley, tea, biscuit):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, tomato, potato, pepper, parsley, tea, biscuit. 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.

More fish chowder recipes

New England 5Salt 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Potato BiscuitPotato Biscuit32 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipes