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Fish Chowder

A creamy soup made with fish, potatoes, salt pork, onions, flour, butter, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 salt pork in a pan until dry, then remove the scraps.

  2. Cook the onion in the fat until soft.

Sear the fish

  1. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then coat with flour.

  2. Sear the fish in the hot fat until browned, then cover and reduce heat to cook slowly.

Simmer and finish

  1. Parboil the potatoes for 10 minutes, then drain.

  2. Add the potatoes and fish broth to the pan with the fish.

  3. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until well done.

  4. Stir in the butter, milk, and broken crackers before serving.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder, becoming tender and flaky as it simmers.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the chowder while adding body.
All-purpose flour
Coats the fish and helps brown it, and thickens the liquid slightly.
Salt pork
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, smoky flavor to the base.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the finished broth.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and thicken the chowder while adding body.

The step that matters

Sear the fish in the hot fat until browned. Searing the floured fish in hot fat browns its surface and builds flavor. Covering and lowering the heat afterward then cooks it gently, which helps keep the flesh from breaking apart.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, flour, potato, butter, milk, pepper. 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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