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Fish Chowder Mrs. R. A. Sibley

A layered fish chowder with crackers, potatoes, milk, and optional onion or pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Mrs. R. A. Sibley

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Layer fish, crackers, and sliced potatoes in a pot.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then repeat the layers until all ingredients are used.

  3. Cover the layers with water and add onion and fried pork or butter if desired.

  4. Boil until the potatoes are tender.

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

  6. Remove all large bones 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 + 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 and provides its savory, flaky flavor.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, adding body and thickening the broth slightly.
Crackers
Layered with the fish and potatoes, they soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil until the potatoes are tender, then add the milk. Potatoes must be fully cooked before the milk goes in, since they will not soften further once the chowder is enriched. Boiling milk too hard after adding it can cause it to scorch on the bottom of the pot or separate.

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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