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Catfish Chowder

A soup made with catfish, milk, onion, potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Catfish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Dress the catfish and soak it in salted water for a while.

  2. Boil the fish in just enough water to cover it until tender.

  3. Remove the largest bones and chop the fish.

Make the chowder

  1. In a stew pan, combine the chopped fish, milk, onion, potatoes, and butter.

  2. Season with pepper and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

Catfish
Provides the flaky, tender protein that forms the body of the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich liquid base.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the chowder and adding body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, mouthfeel and a rounded flavor.
Onion
Contributes aroma and mild sweetness as it softens during simmering.

The step that matters

Boil the fish in just enough water to cover it until tender. Fish protein toughens and dries when boiled too hard or too long, so it should cook gently until just tender. Using only enough water keeps the flavor concentrated for the chowder.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (catfish, milk, potato, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against catfish, milk, potato, butter, pepper. 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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