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Salt Codfish Chowder

A hearty chowder made with salt codfish, bacon, onions, potatoes, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Salt Codfish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Start the base

  1. Render the fat from the bacon or salt pork in a pan.

  2. Sauté the onions in the fat until golden brown.

Cook the fish and potatoes

  1. Rinse the salt codfish in cold water, drain, and cover with cold water in a pot.

  2. Heat the codfish on low for about 2 hours without boiling.

  3. Add the sliced potatoes and a dash of pepper to the pot.

  4. Pour the boiling water over the onions and pork, then strain it over the potatoes.

  5. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the scalded cream and milk, adding salt and pepper if needed.

  2. Place the broken crackers in a serving dish and pour the chowder over them.

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 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

Salt codfish
Main protein and savory flavor; soaking and rinsing draw out its excess salt.
Potatoes
Starch that softens and thickens the broth, giving the chowder body.
Bacon or salt pork
Renders fat that carries flavor and browns the onions.
Onions
Sweetness and aroma develop as they brown in the rendered fat.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the broth.
Milk
Adds liquid and mellows the broth into a creamy consistency.

The step that matters

Heat the codfish on low without boiling. Boiling toughens the fish proteins and squeezes out moisture, leaving the flakes dry and stringy. Gentle heat keeps them tender and moist.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, pepper, cream, 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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