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Fish Chowder

A layered fish chowder with potatoes, bread crumbs, onions, and milk, cooked slowly.

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 ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the fish and cut it into 1-2 inch pieces.

  2. In a large pot, fry some pieces of fat beef for a few moments.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer thinly sliced potatoes, fish, and bread crumbs in the pot. Repeat the layers until you have the desired amount of chowder.

  2. Season with salt and add sliced onions.

  3. Pour hot water and enough milk to cover the mixture. Add a small piece of butter if desired.

  4. Cover the pot tightly and cook on low heat for 30 minutes or until well done.

Serve

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

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 and contributes its flavour to the broth.
Potatoes
Thin slices soften during cooking and thicken the chowder while adding body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid as they cook, helping to thicken and bind the layers.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth as it cooks.
Fat beef
Fried first to release fat that adds richness and flavour to the pot.

The step that matters

Cover the pot tightly and cook on low heat. Gentle, covered cooking keeps the milk from scorching or boiling over and cooks the fish gently so it stays tender rather than tough and dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, beef, potato, bread, milk, butter):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, beef, potato, bread, milk, butter. 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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