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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup of salt pork, potatoes, onion, cod or haddock, tomatoes, milk, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

  1. Cut salt pork into dice and fry until crisp.

  2. Transfer to a chowder kettle.

  3. Peel and cut potatoes in half.

  4. Peel and chop the onion.

Build the chowder

  1. Add potatoes and half the onion to the kettle.

  2. Cut fish into pieces and layer over the potatoes.

  3. Sprinkle remaining onion on top, season with salt and pepper, and add enough water to cover the fish.

  4. Pour in the canned tomatoes, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender.

Finish

  1. Add milk and heat until scalded.

  2. Adjust seasoning with catsup, salt, and pepper.

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Salt pork
Renders fat that adds savory flavor and crisp bits to the chowder.
Potatoes
Form the body of the chowder and soften to thicken it slightly as they cook.
Fresh cod or haddock
Provides the main protein, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks gently in the liquid.
Canned tomatoes
Add acidity and sweetness that give the broth its tangy, rounded flavor.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the broth, mellowing the tomato acidity.

The step that matters

Heat the milk only until scalded. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard, especially with acidic tomatoes. Heating gently until steaming keeps the broth smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

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