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Fish Chowder

A soup made with white fish, carrots, potatoes, salt pork, onion, 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

Start the base

  1. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and fry with the onion for 5 minutes.

  2. Put the pork, onion, carrots, and potatoes in a saucepan and add boiling water to cover.

Finish the chowder

  1. Cook until the vegetables are tender, then add the milk and the fish, boned and cut into small pieces.

  2. Cook for about 10 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Provides the main protein, which flakes into tender pieces when gently cooked.
Salt pork
Renders fat and savoury flavour into the broth as it fries.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the broth.
Onion
Builds aroma and sweetness when fried with the salt pork.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the chowder.

The step that matters

Adding the fish after the vegetables are tender. Fish cooks quickly. If it simmers too long, its proteins tighten and toughen, and the pieces break down into a mushy texture.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, pork, milk, onion. 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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