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Fish Chowder

A layered chowder of pork, onions, fish, crackers, and cream simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 the base

  1. Fry the pork slices in a saucepan until browned.

  2. Cut the pork into small pieces and place in a kettle with the drippings.

  3. Layer the onions over the pork, followed by the fish pieces.

  4. Season with white pepper, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  5. Add minced parsley or curled cress if desired.

Layer and simmer

  1. Layer soaked crackers on top, then repeat the layers, omitting the pork after the first layer.

  2. Cover with cold water and let simmer for nearly an hour.

  3. Finish with a final layer of crackers.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the sweet cream with the flour and stir into the chowder before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pork + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat pork
Browned pork and its drippings give the chowder a savory, rich base flavor.
Fresh fish
Forms the main body of the chowder, becoming tender as it simmers.
Boston or milk crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder as they break down during simmering.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished chowder.
Flour
Thickens the cream so the chowder becomes smoother and more body-rich when stirred in.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and flour mixture. Flour must be mixed with the cream before adding so it disperses without clumping; added directly to hot liquid it forms lumps that do not smooth out. Stirring well ensures an even, smooth thickening.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, fish, white pepper, pepper, milk, cream):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, fish, white pepper, pepper, milk, cream. 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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