Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Fish Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Fry the salt pork in a soup kettle until brown, then remove it.
Layer the fish, potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, and parsley in the kettle.
Continue layering until all ingredients are used.
Cook the chowder
Cover with cold water and boil for 20 minutes.
When nearly done, add the milk and the soaked crackers.
Boil for an additional 5 minutes.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod or haddock
- Forms the flaky body of the chowder as it cooks through.
- Potatoes
- Thicken the broth slightly as their starch releases during boiling.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and savory depth to the broth as they cook.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory flavor from the rendered drippings.
- Milk
- Adds richness and creaminess to the broth near the end of cooking.
- Hard crackers
- Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder.
The step that matters
Add the milk and crackers near the end. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard for a long time, so adding it when the chowder is nearly done and boiling only briefly keeps it smooth and creamy.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, potato, onion, pork, pepper, milk):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Celeryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, potato, onion, pork, pepper, 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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