Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fish Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Fry the salt pork in an iron pot until crisp.
Remove the pork, leaving the fat in the pot.
Layer and stew
Layer fish pieces, split crackers, and chopped pork in the pot, seasoning with black and red pepper and onions.
Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, then cover with water.
Stew slowly until the fish is fully cooked.
Remove from pot and keep hot.
Thicken and serve
Thicken the gravy with rolled crackers or flour.
Boil the gravy once and pour over the chowder.
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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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt pork
- Its rendered fat flavours the pot and its crisp pieces add savoury richness.
- Fresh fish
- Forms the main body of the chowder, becoming tender and flaky as it stews.
- Split crackers
- Soak up liquid and help give the chowder body as they soften.
- Rolled crackers or flour
- Starch that thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.
- Chopped onions
- Add aromatic sweetness and depth as they soften in the pork fat and broth.
The step that matters
Thicken the gravy with rolled crackers or flour.. Starch granules swell and gelatinise when heated in liquid, so the gravy thickens only if it is brought to a boil after the starch is added. Adding too little starch, or stirring poorly, leaves lumps or a thin gravy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, fish, pepper, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, fish, pepper, flour. 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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