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Fish Chowder

A soup made with halibut or cod, 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

Prepare

  1. Gut and remove bones from the fish.

  2. Lay the fish in the bottom of a soup kettle.

  3. Cover the fish with the diced potatoes.

Cook

  1. Fry the salt pork and sliced onion until cooked.

  2. Pour the pork and onion over the fish and potatoes.

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

  4. 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
Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they soften and add starchy body to the chowder.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that carries through the whole pot.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the rendered pork fat.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 1 hour. Gentle simmering keeps the fish moist and in large pieces, while a hard boil can toughen the fish and break it apart. Potatoes cook through evenly at a low heat.

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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