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Fish Chowder

A baked fish chowder made with codfish, milk, onions, herbs, flour, butter, egg yolks, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove all bones from the fish and season lightly with black pepper and coarse sea salt.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, combine milk, onions, thyme, parsley, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg; simmer for 15 minutes and then strain.

  2. Return the strained mixture to the heat and add flour, butter, and egg yolks; stir until it thickens but do not let it get too thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the sauce and fish alternately, with sauce on top and bottom.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese over the top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the flaky body of the chowder once baked through in the sauce.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the sauce is built on and simmered with aromatics.
Flour
Thickens the milk-based sauce so it holds its shape around the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that smooths the sauce and carries flavor.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce as they gently set with heat.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma to the milk as it simmers.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Egg yolks set when heated, so if the sauce gets too hot or is stirred too long after adding them, it can curdle or turn grainy. Stir gently over moderate heat and stop once it coats a spoon, as the record advises against letting it get too thick.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, milk, onion, thyme, parsley, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, milk, onion, thyme, parsley, nutmeg. 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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