Name: Another Fish Chowder
Ingredients: fish; butter; 6 onions, sliced finely; potatoes; reserved broth

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 ↓

Another Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean the fish and parboil it, reserving the water.
Heat a dry pot and add a lump of butter.

Cook the chowder

Add the sliced onions and cook until fragrant.
Add the fish and cover the pot to absorb the flavor.
Add a small quantity of potatoes and some reserved broth.
Cook until done, then let each person season their own dish.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 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

Fish: Forms the main body of the chowder and releases flavor into the pot as it cooks.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying aroma from the pot into the dish.
Onions: Soften and turn sweet as they cook, building a savory base.
Potatoes: Add starch and body, thickening the broth as they cook.