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Fish Chowder

A soup of halibut or cod with potatoes, salt pork, onion, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Assemble

  1. Place the fish in the bottom of a soup kettle.

  2. Add the diced potatoes on top of the fish.

  3. Fry the salt pork and sliced onion until cooked, then pour over the fish and potatoes.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover with water and cook slowly for 1 hour.

  2. Add the milk just 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. 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 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

Halibut or cod
Provides the main protein and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth as their starch releases during slow cooking and add body.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the broth as it renders.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth when fried with the salt pork.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, and is added late so it does not curdle.

The step that matters

Cook and serve. Milk should be added just before serving, as the record directs. Boiling milk for a long time can cause it to scorch on the bottom of the pot or separate, so adding it at the end keeps the chowder smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, 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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