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Fish Chowder

A stew of fish, potatoes, onions, and pork fat in milk and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large pot, fry pieces of fat pork seasoned with pepper until done.

  2. Remove the pork and add sliced peeled onions.

Stew and thicken

  1. Layer in fresh fish and cut Irish potatoes.

  2. Add 2 cups of water and let it stew for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in 2 cups of milk thickened with 2 tablespoons of flour, and let it boil.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 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. Pork + oniontop 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

Fat pork
Renders fat that carries flavor through the chowder.
Fresh fish
Provides the main protein and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Irish potatoes
Add starch that gives the chowder body and soaks up flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the chowder becomes creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Adding the thickened milk. Flour mixed into cold milk can clump, and boiling a flour-thickened milk mixture can scorch the bottom of the pot. Stir constantly and keep the heat moderate so the milk thickens smoothly without sticking or curdling.

Swap the onion

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

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

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