Why it works: Pork and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,667 recipes mention both. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the fish
Skin the cod and haddock, remove bones, and cut the fish into small pieces.
Wash and dry the fish pieces, then lightly flour them.
Boil the fish heads and bones in 2 quarts of cold water with a little salt.
Build the chowder
Slice the salt pork thinly and cook it in the bottom of a kettle until rendered.
Brown the chopped onions in the pork fat, being careful not to over-brown.
Layer the kettle with fish, fried onions, pork, pepper, salt, potatoes, and crackers, sprinkling a little flour between layers.
Strain the boiling water over the layered ingredients, adding hot water if necessary to cover.
Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.
Finish and serve
In a separate pan, mix butter and flour, cook for a few minutes, then add milk or cream and bring to a boil.
Pour the mixture into the chowder and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Pork + potatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,667 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,019 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Pork + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18,199 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
- Cod and haddock
- Provide the flaky fish body that forms the main substance of the chowder.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat that carries flavour into the onions and the whole pot.
- Potatoes
- Starch that thickens the broth slightly and gives the chowder its body.
- Butter and flour
- A roux that thickens the milk or cream so the finished chowder is smoother and richer.
- Milk or cream
- Adds richness and a creamy texture to the broth.
The step that matters
Browning the onions in pork fat. Onions turn bitter and dark when over-browned, which would flavour the whole chowder unpleasantly. Cook them gently until golden so their sweetness comes through.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, pork, potato, pepper, flour, butter, milk):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, pork, potato, pepper, flour, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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