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Boston Fish Chowder

A hearty chowder made with fish, salt pork, onions, potatoes, crackers, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Boston Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into slices.

  2. Place the pork slices in the bottom of an iron kettle.

  3. Cook the pork until partly rendered.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer the fish on top of the pork, followed by onions and potatoes, adding salt and pepper to each layer.

  2. Add hard crackers around the sides and top of the layers.

  3. Pour in cold water to nearly cover the ingredients.

  4. Bring to a boil and cook for 45 minutes, being careful not to overcook the fish.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into tender pieces as it cooks.
Salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the chowder and seasons the broth.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
Onions
Soften during cooking and add sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Hard crackers
Absorb liquid and soften, helping thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Do not overcook the fish. Fish proteins set and toughen with prolonged heat, becoming dry and stringy, so it should be cooked just until it flakes.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, potato, pepper, bread. 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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