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Fish Chowder

A stew of fresh fish, crackers, potatoes, and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

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

Layer

  1. Layer some fish in a pot.

  2. Add crackers and sliced potatoes on top.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Repeat the layers with the remaining fish, crackers, and potatoes.

  5. Cover the layers with water.

  6. Add onion and fried pork or butter if desired.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Stir in the milk and bring to a boil again.

  3. When serving, remove all large bones.

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 + porktop 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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Onion + porktop 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

Fresh fish
Forms the main body of the chowder, providing flavor and tender flakes when cooked.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
Crackers
Absorb liquid as they cook, helping thicken the chowder and add substance.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.
Fried pork or butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing savory flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil until the potatoes are tender. Potatoes must be fully cooked before the milk goes in. Undercooked potatoes stay firm and starchy, while adding milk too early or boiling it hard can curdle or scorch it.

Swap the onion

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

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

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