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Cod Chowder

A hearty soup of cod, salt pork, onions, crackers, oysters, milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cod Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and layer

  1. Cut the cod into dice.

  2. In a soup pot, layer a double handful of cod, followed by pork, sliced onion, and pepper.

  3. Cover with crackers and repeat the layering until all ingredients are used.

Simmer and serve

  1. Cover with cold water, place the lid on the pot, and simmer gently until the fish is tender, about 1 hour after boiling begins.

  2. Remove the fish and crackers with a slotted spoon and place them in a tureen, keeping it warm in hot water.

  3. Strain the broth through a colander to remove bones, then return it to the kettle and heat.

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

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

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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
Forms the main body of the chowder, becoming tender and flaky during gentle simmering.
Boston crackers
Soak up cooking liquid and help thicken the chowder while adding body.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Corn-starch
Thickens the broth, giving it a smoother, more body-filled texture.
Oysters
Contribute briny, savory flavor and a tender texture to the chowder.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the chowder's body.

The step that matters

Simmering the fish gently. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer cooks the cod until tender without breaking it into shreds. A hard boil toughens the proteins and fragments the flakes.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, onion, pork, butter, corn, oyster, milk):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, onion, pork, butter, corn, oyster, milk. 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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