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Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with cod or haddock, potatoes, salt pork, onion, and crackers, simmered in a seasoned broth.

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 the fish

  1. Skin the fish by loosening the skin at the head and peeling it down towards the tail.

  2. Remove the backbone from the fish.

  3. Cut the fish into small pieces.

  4. Wash the fish pieces in cold water.

Make the broth

  1. Boil the head and bones in 2 quarts of hot water.

  2. Strain the water from the boiled head and bones into the pot when the other components are ready.

Build and simmer the chowder

  1. Layer the potatoes and fish in a kettle, seasoning each layer with salt, pepper, and flour.

  2. Fry the salt pork until brown.

  3. Add the onion to the pork and fry slowly for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the pork and onion mixture over the fish and potatoes, pressing to extract the gravy.

  5. Pour 1 pint of hot water over the strained mixture to extract more flavor.

  6. Strain the water from the boiled head and bones into the pot.

  7. Cover the pot.

  8. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  9. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

  10. Add the crackers.

  11. Cover the pot.

  12. Simmer for an additional 10 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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Cod or haddock
Provides the main body of the chowder as flaky fish pieces that cook through in the broth.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the chowder slightly as they cook and break down.
Salt pork
Renders fat and flavor that carries the gravy and browns for a savory base.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the liquid as it is layered with the fish and potatoes.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the rendered pork fat.
Crackers
Soak up liquid and add body to the finished chowder.

The step that matters

Frying the salt pork and onion slowly. Browning the pork and softening the onion slowly builds savory flavor in the rendered fat. Rushing this over high heat can scorch the onion and leave bitter notes in the gravy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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