Name: Fish Chowder
Ingredients: ½ gallon beef stock; ½ gallon fish stock (from boiled fish); 2 pounds boiled fish, flaked; coarse sea salt (to taste); black pepper (to taste)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

½ gallon beef stock
½ gallon fish stock (from boiled fish)
2 pounds boiled fish, flaked
coarse sea salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)

Directions

Combine half the beef stock with the fish stock.
Prepare and finish the chowder as you would clam chowder, omitting tomatoes.
Add the flaked boiled fish to the mixture.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).