Skip to main content
Main

Fish Chowder

A hearty stew of fresh fish, potatoes, onions, salt pork, claret, milk, butter, and ship crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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. Slice the fish, potatoes, and onion.

  2. Cut the salt pork into half-inch squares.

Make the chowder

  1. Fry the pork and onions in a saucepan until light brown.

  2. Add the claret and bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

  3. Butter a large stew-pan and layer the potatoes, fish, onions, and pork, seasoning with pepper and salt.

  4. Pour the claret over the layers and barely cover with boiling water.

  5. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes without disturbing.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the milk (or cream), then remove from heat and stir in the butter and ship crackers.

  2. Arrange the fish and potatoes in a dome shape on a hot platter.

  3. Top with the softened crackers and pour the milk mixture over.

  4. Serve very 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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 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 and flakes into tender pieces as it cooks.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, helping thicken the broth and give the chowder substance.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savoury flavour into the dish as it fries with the onions.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour to the broth as it simmers with the layers.
Milk
Enriches the finishing sauce with richness and a creamy, smooth texture.
Ship crackers
Soften in the hot milk and butter, thickening the topping and absorbing liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer without disturbing. Once the layers are covered with boiling water, stirring or lifting them can break up the fish and potatoes. Leaving them undisturbed lets the fish cook gently into large, intact pieces.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More fish chowder recipes

New England 5Salt 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipes