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Fresh Fish Chowder

A chowder made with Mackinaw trout, potatoes, salt pork, crackers, butter, and optional sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fresh Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Layer the chowder

  1. Fry the salt pork until light brown and place it in the bottom of a kettle.

  2. Layer the sliced potatoes on top.

  3. Layer the fish on top.

  4. Season each layer with salt and pepper.

  5. Split the crackers.

  6. Swell the crackers in just enough cold water to cover.

  7. Add the crackers as another layer.

  8. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover with hot water.

  2. Cook for 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Add a piece of butter the size of an egg.

  4. Stir in sweet cream if desired.

  5. Serve hot.

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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main flaky body of the chowder as it cooks through.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding body and thickening the broth.
Salt pork
Its rendered fat carries savoury flavour through the whole pot.
Boston crackers
Swell with water and soften, thickening the broth and adding body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth fatty finish to the broth.

The step that matters

Swelling the crackers in just enough cold water. Crackers absorb liquid and soften, thickening the broth. Using too much water leaves a thin, watery chowder, while too little leaves dry, hard pieces.

“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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