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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of fresh fish, potatoes, onions, and seasonings simmered in water with optional milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a frying pan, heat the chopped salt pork until hot.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until softened.

  3. Stir in the chopped thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and minced garlic; simmer for 10 minutes.

Simmer the chowder

  1. Pour in the boiling water, then add the fish, sliced potatoes, and tomatoes.

  2. Season with cayenne or black pepper to taste, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. If desired, stir in the milk before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve hot over oyster 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Potato + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,517 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the pan and seasons the broth.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, adding body and thickening the chowder slightly.
Fish
Provides the main protein and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a tangy depth that balances the rich pork fat.
Onion
Softens into sweetness that forms the aromatic base of the chowder.

The step that matters

Simmering the fish. Fish is delicate and overcooks quickly, becoming dry and tough. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil helps it stay tender and hold together in the pieces.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, onion, pork, thyme, parsley, garlic):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Fennelfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, onion, pork, thyme, parsley, garlic. 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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