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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with cod, potatoes, salt pork, Boston crackers, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Cut the salt pork into strips and fry in an iron kettle.

  2. Remove the pork, leaving the fat in the kettle.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer fresh cod, potato slices, fried pork, and split Boston crackers in the kettle.

  2. Season each layer with salt and pepper.

  3. Cover the layers with boiling water or a mixture of water and milk.

  4. Boil slowly for about an hour.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Salt pork
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, smoky flavor to the chowder.
Fresh cod
Provides the fish that flakes into the chowder as it cooks slowly.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the broth and filling out the dish.
Boston crackers
Soak up liquid and help thicken the chowder while adding substance.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for about an hour. A gentle simmer cooks the cod through without breaking it into shreds, while the potatoes soften evenly. Boiling hard would toughen the fish and can scorch the milk on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, 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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