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Salt Codfish Chowder

A chowder made with salt codfish, fat salt pork, onions, potatoes, cream, and milk.

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 ↓

Salt Codfish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cut the fat salt pork into bits and fry with the onions in a saucepan until golden brown.

  2. Rinse the salt codfish in cold water and place it in a saucepan, covering it with cold water. Heat gently without boiling.

Make the chowder

  1. After 2 hours, add the par-boiled potatoes to the saucepan.

  2. Strain the pork and onions over the potatoes and fish, then add the boiling water.

  3. Cook until the potatoes are soft.

  4. Stir in the scalded cream and milk, then season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with toasted 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. 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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 codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and flaky body after soaking and gentle heating.
Potatoes
Starch softens during cooking and gives the chowder its thick, hearty body.
Fat salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the chowder and adds savory depth.
Onions
Browning in the pork fat adds sweetness and savory aroma to the base.
Scalded cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Milk
Adds moisture and mild sweetness, further softening the broth's texture.

The step that matters

Heat the salt cod gently without boiling. Boiling toughens the proteins in fish, making it dry and rubbery, so gentle heat keeps the salt cod tender and flaky.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, cream, 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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