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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with yellow pike, salt pork, onions, pepper, flour, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pike into four or five pieces, including the head.

Make the chowder

  1. In a large pot, fry the salt pork pieces until light brown.

  2. Add the chopped onions and fry for 5-10 minutes.

  3. Add the fish and cover with water; boil until the fish easily comes off the bone (about 30 minutes).

  4. Stir in the pepper and salt to taste.

  5. Mix the flour with the milk and stir into the pot.

  6. Dip the crackers in water and add them to the chowder; let it boil briefly 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. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yellow pike
Provides the fish body of the chowder, which flakes off the bone as it simmers.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pot that carries flavour and browns the onions.
Onions
Soften and add sweetness and aroma to the broth base.
Flour
Thickens the milk and broth so the chowder becomes creamy and coats the spoon.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy body to the broth.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and thicken the chowder as they boil briefly.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and milk mixture. Stirring flour into hot liquid without first mixing it with milk can form lumps. Blending it smoothly into the milk first lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken the chowder without clumping.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, flour, 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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