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
Wash and dry the fish, then cut it into small pieces.
Soak the biscuits in the milk, then beat out lumps with a fork.
Cook the chowder
In a stewpan, layer the fish, potatoes, and pork, sprinkling each layer with onion, herbs, salt, and pepper.
Add the water, cover closely, and cook gently for about 40 minutes.
Stir the biscuit mixture into the stew about 10 minutes before serving.
Add seasoning to taste and serve hot.
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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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + porktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together428 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Break down partly during cooking to thicken the broth and give body.
- Water biscuits
- Soaked in milk and stirred in, they thicken the chowder and add body.
- Pickled pork
- Adds salty, savoury fat that flavours the broth as it cooks.
- Cod, haddock, or whiting
- Flaky white fish that provides the main protein and texture of the chowder.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.
The step that matters
Stirring in the biscuit mixture. Adding the soaked biscuits near the end lets them thicken the broth without over-softening or scorching. Beating out the lumps first keeps the chowder smooth rather than gluey.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, potato, pork, biscuit, milk, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, potato, pork, biscuit, milk, pepper. 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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