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Vegetable Chowder

A hearty soup of salt pork, onion, potatoes, parsnips, milk, butter, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 484 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Vegetable Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the salt pork in a deep kettle until browned.

  2. Add the sliced onion and fry until browned.

  3. Stir in the chopped potatoes and parsnips, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  4. Gradually add the boiling water and let it boil until the vegetables are soft.

  5. Add the milk and butter a little at a time, then stir in the cracker crumbs and parsley.

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. Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  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

Salt pork
Renders fat as it browns, flavouring the base of the chowder.
Potatoes
Soften during boiling and thicken the chowder as they break down.
Parsnips
Soften during boiling and add sweetness and body to the chowder.
Milk
Makes the chowder creamy and adds richness and body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the flavour and texture.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and thicken the chowder slightly.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard or is added to very hot liquid all at once. Adding it gradually, a little at a time, keeps it smooth and stable.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, milk, potato, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, milk, potato, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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