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Fish Chowder

A creamy soup made with fish, onions, potatoes, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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

  1. Boil the fish in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the fish and add the sliced onion and potatoes to the water.

  3. Remove the skin and bones from the fish and return the fish to the kettle.

  4. Boil until the vegetables are tender.

  5. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  6. Heat the milk in a double boiler, then add it to the kettle.

  7. Let it boil once, then keep on the back of the stove until ready to serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 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

Fish
Provides the main flesh and flavor of the chowder.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they cook and give the chowder body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory depth to the broth as it softens.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk can scorch or curdle if it boils hard or sits over direct heat, so it is heated gently in a double boiler before joining the kettle. Boiling it only once and then holding it warm keeps it smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, milk, butter, 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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