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Fish Chowder

A stew of haddock, potatoes, onion, butter, milk, flour, tomatoes, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. Remove the gills from the haddock and cut into pieces.

  2. Peel and dice the potatoes and onion.

Make the chowder

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion until translucent.

  2. Add the potatoes and fish, then cover with water and cook until tender.

  3. Stir in the milk and tomatoes, then add the flour to thicken.

  4. Finally, mix in the bread crumbs and simmer for a few minutes before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Haddock
Forms the main body of the chowder and becomes flaky as it cooks.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that helps the chowder feel hearty.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor when the onion is sautéed.
Milk
Creates the creamy base of the chowder.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the chowder becomes creamy rather than watery.
Bread crumbs
Further thicken the chowder as they absorb liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the milk and tomatoes. Flour thickens best when it is evenly dispersed in liquid; added in clumps it stays lumpy. Stirring well as it is added, and letting it simmer, lets the starch swell fully and gives a smooth, thickened chowder.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, potato, onion, butter, milk, flour, bread):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, potato, onion, butter, milk, flour, bread. 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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