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Fish Chowder, No. 2

A simple fish chowder made with cod, haddock, onions, potatoes, crackers, salt pork, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the fish, onions, and potatoes.

  2. In a pot, layer the fish, onions, and potatoes.

  3. Add the salt pork, salt, and pepper.

  4. Split the crackers and lay them on top.

  5. Pour enough hot water to cover the mixture.

Cook

  1. Boil gently for 15 minutes.

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. Onion + potatotop 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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into tender pieces as it cooks.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the chowder body.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the broth, adding richness and savory flavor.
White crackers
Soak up cooking liquid and help thicken the chowder.
Onions
Add savory aroma and sweetness as they soften in the broth.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 15 minutes. A gentle simmer cooks the fish through while keeping its flesh tender and intact. A hard, rapid boil can break the fish apart and toughen it.

Swap the onion

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

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

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