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Fish Chowder

A creamy haddock chowder with potatoes, onions, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and Boston crackers.

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. Clean and cut the fish into pieces.

  2. Slice the potatoes and onion, then add them to the fish.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover the fish and vegetables with hot water and cook until tender.

  2. In a separate saucepan, heat the milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Pour the heated mixture over the fish when ready to serve.

  4. Lay Boston crackers over the top.

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. 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

Haddock
Forms the main body of the chowder, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the broth with their starch, adding body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the finished chowder.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the milk mixture.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish until tender. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry and tough if overcooked. Cook only until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily, so it stays moist in the chowder.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, potato, milk, pepper, butter. 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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