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Potato Chowder

A hearty soup made with salt pork, potatoes, onions, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Potato Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crisp the salt pork in a deep kettle and remove it.

Cook

  1. Layer sliced potatoes, flour, pepper, salt, and onions alternately until the kettle is full.

  2. Cover the layers with boiling water up to the potatoes.

  3. Cook slowly for 45 minutes.

  4. Add enough milk to cover the mixture and a few split crackers.

  5. Ensure it is well seasoned and does not scorch.

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. 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the chowder and soften as they cook, giving body to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the chowder becomes creamy rather than watery.
Salt pork
Renders fat that flavours the chowder and is crisped before the layering begins.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished chowder.
Split crackers
Absorb liquid and help thicken the chowder slightly as they soften.

The step that matters

Cook slowly and stir-free without scorching. Starchy potatoes and flour settle on the base of the kettle and can burn when heated too fast. Gentle, low heat lets the potatoes soften evenly and keeps the flour from sticking and tasting raw or scorched.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, flour, pepper, 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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