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Fish Chowder

A savory soup made with salt pork, potatoes, onion, cod or haddock, tomatoes, milk, and sea‑biscuit crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Fry the diced salt pork until crisp in a chowder kettle.

  2. Add the halved potatoes and part of the chopped onion to the kettle.

  3. Layer the fish pieces over the potatoes and sprinkle with the remaining onion.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then add enough water to cover the fish.

Cook the chowder

  1. Pour in the canned tomatoes, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Stir in the milk and let it scald again.

  3. Season with Sauce Piquant or tomato ketchup, and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Serve

  1. Break sea-biscuit crackers into a pan, pour water over them, and keep warm.

  2. Serve the chowder in a tureen and top with the softened crackers.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat that flavours the base and gives crisp bits of savoury richness.
Potatoes
Starch that thickens the broth slightly and gives the chowder its body.
Fresh cod or haddock
Flaky white fish that becomes tender and forms the main body of the chowder.
Canned tomatoes
Adds acidity and liquid that brightens the broth against the rich milk.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the chowder's acidity.
Sea-biscuit crackers
Softened in water, they absorb liquid and add a bread-like thickness when served on top.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and let it scald, not boil. Milk can curdle or separate when it is boiled hard with acidic tomatoes. Heating it gently until just scalding keeps the chowder smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, haddock, pepper, fish, tomato, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, haddock, pepper, fish, tomato, milk. 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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