Skip to main content
Main

Fish Chowder

A creamy fish chowder with cod or haddock, potatoes, onions, salt pork, milk, and crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare the base

  1. Render the salt pork in a pot until the fat is released.

  2. Add sliced onion and potatoes cut into ¼‑inch slices; boil for 5 minutes.

Cook and finish

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then add the fish and boil until tender.

  2. Remove the fish, add the milk, and bring to a boil.

  3. Split the crackers and add them to the pot; let them soften but not soak.

  4. Pour the mixture over the fish and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Cod, haddock, or lake trout
Forms the main body of the chowder and becomes tender as it cooks.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth as they break down and give the chowder body.
Salt pork
Releases fat that carries flavor through the pot, seasoning the base.
Milk
Makes the broth creamy and mild while adding richness.
Common crackers
Soften in the broth to add body and help thicken the chowder.

The step that matters

Let the crackers soften but not soak. Crackers absorb liquid and swell quickly; if left too long they turn mushy and break apart, dulling the texture of the chowder.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More fish chowder recipes

New England 5Salt 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes