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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of salt pork, potatoes, onion, cod or haddock, tomatoes, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 the base

  1. Fry the diced salt pork until crisp in a chowder kettle.

  2. Add the halved potatoes and chopped onion to the kettle.

Cook the chowder

  1. Layer the fish pieces over the potatoes, sprinkle with remaining onion, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add enough water to just cover the fish.

  3. Pour in the quart of tomatoes, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender.

  4. Stir in the milk and let it scald again.

  5. Adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, or tomato catsup if needed.

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and crisp bits that flavour the broth.
Potatoes
Starch that cooks tender and thickens the chowder body.
Fresh cod or haddock
Flaky white fish that becomes the main protein of the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and let it scald again. Boiling milk can curdle or separate, especially in an acidic tomato broth. Heating it gently until just scalding keeps the chowder smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, haddock, pepper, fish, tomato, milk. 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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