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
Prepare the base
Fry the pork slices in a pot until well cooked.
Add the sliced onions and fry in the pork fat until light brown, stirring constantly.
Transfer the mixture to a pot with boiling water and boil for 20 minutes.
Cook the chowder
Remove the pork and onions, then add the sliced potatoes and boil for another 20 minutes.
Add the shredded fish and boil for 10 minutes, or until cooked through.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the farina with cold milk to create a thickening.
Stir the thickening into the chowder and let it boil once.
Skim off any scum that rises to the top before serving.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 salt pork
- Renders fat for frying the onions and adds savory, meaty flavor to the broth.
- Onions
- Soften and turn sweet and golden in the pork fat, building the chowder's base flavor.
- Potatoes
- Break down slightly as they cook, giving the chowder body and starch.
- Solid fish
- Provides the main protein, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks through.
- Farina
- Starch that thickens the chowder when mixed with cold milk and brought to a boil.
The step that matters
Stirring the farina thickening into the chowder. Farina must be whisked smoothly into cold milk first, then stirred into the hot liquid. Added dry or lumpy, it clumps and does not thicken evenly. Letting it boil once activates the starch to thicken the broth.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, fish, pepper, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, fish, 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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