Chowder Wars

As I tour New England teaching cooking classes, no single subject prompts more questions and stirs more heated debate than chowder.

“What makes a chowder a chowder and not a soup or stew?”

“Are chowders always made with seafood?”

And (adamantly stated), “We never, ever [insert “thicken with flour” or “add tomatoes” or “use bacon”] around here.”

These questions and opinions come at me over and over, from New Haven, Conn., to Providence, R.I., to Marblehead, Mass., and even from folks in landlocked Concord, N.H., and Shelburne, Vt.

“Chowder,” states Alan Davidson in “The Oxford Companion To Food,” “always means a hearty soup, usually but not invariably of seafood; and clam chowder is its best known form.”

That definition is a little too vague for me. And it certainly won’t lift me off the proverbial hook when I am being grilled by rabid chowderheads like the ones I’ve encountered of late.

Here’s my definition of chowder: A chunky hearty soup, usually made with salt pork or bacon, onions, potatoes, the main ingredient (almost always seafood) and a liquid. That’s the starting point, and then people add or subtract, depending mostly on the region.

The word “chowder” derives from chaudiere, French for caldron. Chowders have been eaten in this country for at least two centuries, probably three.

They have evolved over the centuries, but the soup actually remains pretty true to its culinary beginnings. Although chowders traveled west as the country expanded, it was in New England that they flourished most and where regional differences are still most distinct.

Debate still rages, for instance, about whether tomatoes belong in a chowder. A good many cookbooks give recipes for “Rhode Island Red” chowders. From as far back as the 1939 edition of the “Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” to the brand-new Jasper White book, “50 Chowders” (Scribner, $30), most of the tomato recipes are traditional milk-based chowders with some chopped canned or fresh tomatoes added.

Many chowder aficionados, however, don’t agree. And they don’t mince words.

“I love Jasper White, but he’s crazy if he thinks we eat chowder with tomatoes in it here in Rhode Island,” said a middle-aged woman from Warwick. “Where I grew up, we never, never made it that way. My grandparents made chowder all the time--at least once a week--and they’d tell him a thing or two if they were still around!”

When I was invited to teach a cooking class in Providence, I chose to demonstrate several chowders from my book, suspecting that the subject would provoke lively conversation, making for an entertaining and enlightening evening.

I got a little more than I bargained for. When I introduced my version of the Rhode Island Red chowder, any lingering shred of Yankee reserve dissolved, with people declaring for or against the controversial tomato with vehemence that sometimes bordered on genuine indignation. In a class of about 15, the majority were decidedly against the item in question, with only a handful admitting to having grown up eating chowder with tomatoes in it.

We tried tying the chowder styles to a particular part of Rhode Island, but it seemed that the differences existed from family to family, or possibly from town to town. And in spite of our increasingly urban, mall-dominated, fast-food-oriented society, these traditions seem to have remained more or less intact.

The funny thing was that they all loved eating the red chowder. It is a delicious variation, with the slight acidity of the tomatoes cutting the richness and enlivening the brew. (You’ll note that my recipe lists a pinch of baking soda, a precaution against the tomatoes curdling the milky broth.)

There are plenty of other variables in even the most basic clam chowders. The type of clams used, the choice of liquid, whether to thicken with flour and the use of salt pork or bacon are all rife with potential controversy.

The type of clam is usually easily decided. Use whatever clams are harvested in a particular place.

In Maine, chowder is almost always made with soft-shell clams, or “steamers,” because hard-shell clams (also called quahogs--that’s pronounced “ko-hogs”) are rare in the state. Maine chowder is usually a milky, brothy chowder, not thickened with flour.

The traditional Boston-style clam chowder is made with chopped quahogs, has a milk or cream base and is usually thickened with flour.

In Connecticut and some parts of western Rhode Island, the traditional chowder used to be a “clear” one (that’s pronounced “clee-ah” in Yankee), made with little or no milk, using clam broth and water as the liquid.

And finally, there’s the perennial argument about Manhattan Clam Chowder, which James Beard described as resembling “a vegetable soup that accidentally had some clams dumped into it.”

Thick and Creamy Boston Clam Chowder

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Here is a chowder in the classic Bostonian style: lightly thickened with flour, enriched with a bit of light cream, chock full of chopped hard-shell clams and cubed potatoes and enhanced with a goodly sprinkling of thyme, the chowder herb. The recipe is adapted from the “Legal Sea Foods Cookbook” and is essentially the chowder that has been introducing legions of visitors to Boston’s “specialty of the house” for a couple of decades.

1/4 pound salt pork, finely chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup flour

3 cups milk

4 cups clam liquor, clam broth, bottled clam juice or a combination (see Note)

1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large bay leaf, broken in half

2 teaspoons dried thyme or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

3 cups coarsely chopped hard-shell clams (see Note)

2 cups half-and-half or light cream

Salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1 tablespoon butter

* In a large kettle or soup pot, cook salt pork over medium heat until fat is rendered and pork bits are crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove pork with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels and reserve, leaving drippings in pot.

* Add onion to drippings and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to soften, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle on flour and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add milk and clam liquor, whisking until smooth. Add potatoes, bay leaf and dried thyme and cook uncovered until potatoes are almost tender, 10 minutes. Add clams and fresh thyme (if using) and stir in half-and-half. Continue to simmer until potatoes are tender, about 5 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Remove from the heat and let chowder sit, partly covered, at cool room temperature for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate for up to 2 days. Reheat gently, discarding the bay leaf.)

* To serve, ladle chowder into soup bowls, add a small square of butter and stir to swirl in. Sprinkle with reserved salt pork cracklings if desired.

4 servings. Each serving: 900 calories; 1,307 mg sodium; 189 mg cholesterol; 49 grams fat; 68 grams carbohydrates; 48 grams protein; 4.08 grams fiber.

Note: You can buy chopped fresh clams from a fish market or use 5 quarts of scrubbed hard-shell quahogs and steam them in a small amount of water in a large kettle until they open, 5 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Then scrape out the clam meat and chop or cut it with scissors into cranberry-size pieces. Pour cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup, let any mud settle and pour off clean broth. This is clam liquor.

Rhode Island Red Chowder

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

By the last half of the 19th century, the whole of southern New England had begun its enthusiastic love affair with the tomato. Tomatoes began making their way into more and more old-time Yankee dishes, eventually adding their blushing beauty even to traditional chowders, particularly in Rhode Island. This savory chowder, which is tinted an attractive pale orange-pink by its tomato additions, is thickened in one of the classical ways with crumbled crackers.

1/4 pound thick-sliced bacon or salt pork, chopped

2 onions, chopped

3 tablespoons flour

4 cups clam broth (or a mixture of juice drained from clams and bottled juice)

1 pound baking potatoes, peeled and diced

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 large bay leaf, broken in half

3 cups whole milk

2 cups seeded diced fresh plum tomatoes

2 cups coarsely chopped hard-shell clams

3 tablespoons ketchup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon butter

8 common crackers or saltines, crumbled

* In a large kettle or soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat until crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels and reserve, leaving drippings in pot.

* Add onions to drippings and cook until softened but not brown, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle flour over onions and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Whisk in clam broth. Add potatoes, oregano and bay leaf and simmer uncovered until potatoes are almost tender, 10 minutes. Add milk, tomatoes and clams and simmer uncovered over medium heat until potatoes are very tender, 5 to 10 minutes.

* In a small dish, combine ketchup and baking soda and whisk mixture into chowder. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside for an hour or so or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

* When ready to serve, reheat chowder gently over medium-low heat. Remove bay leaf, add butter and swirl until melted. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Place crumbled crackers in bottoms of soup bowls and ladle chowder over them. Pass bacon or salt pork bits for sprinkling over top if desired.

6 servings. Each serving: 348 calories; 788 mg sodium; 65 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 23 grams protein; 3.55 grams fiber.

Note: You can buy chopped fresh clams from a fish market or use 5 quarts of scrubbed hard-shell quahogs and steam them in a small amount of water in a large kettle until they open, 5 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Then scrape out the clam meat and chop or cut it with scissors into cranberry-size pieces. Pour cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup, let any mud settle, and pour off clean broth. This is clam liquor.

Milky Maine Steamer Chowder

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

In this quintessential Down East chowder, the delicate, subtle sea flavor of soft-shell steamer clams prevails. In fact, if Mainers are building a chowder with hard-shell clams, they specifically label it “quahog chowder” to differentiate it from the genuine article, and never, ever do they introduce even a sprinkle of flour, relying instead on the thickening power of well-cooked floury potatoes. Evaporated milk was used originally as a convenience but has now become standard in most classic recipes, its smooth creaminess balancing the brininess of the clams. This chowder is one that benefits particularly well from a good long period of aging or ripening.

2 1/2 pounds (about 50) soft-shell clams (see Note)

1/4 pound salt pork, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)

1 onion, chopped

1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and diced

6 cups clam liquor, broth, bottled clam juice, or a combination (see Note)

3 cups whole milk

1 (12-ounce can) evaporated milk

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons butter

* Scrub clams well and steam in a large pot with about 1 cup of water just until they open, 5 to 10 minutes, depending on their size. When cool enough to handle, remove clams from shells over cooking pot to catch juices. Pull black skin off the necks and, if clams are large, separate soft parts from the firm; chop firm parts. (If small, leave whole.) Strain broth through cheesecloth or dish towel and reserve.

* In a large kettle or soup pot, cook salt pork over medium heat until fat is rendered and pork bits are crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels and reserve, leaving drippings in pot.

* Add onion to drippings and cook until it begins to soften, about 6 minutes. Add diced potatoes and clam liquor, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, partly covered, until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add clams and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes longer. Stir in milk and evaporated milk and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Remove from heat and let chowder sit, at cool room temperature, at least 2 hours or refrigerate up to 2 days.)

* Reheat over very low heat, stirring frequently, until chowder steams and is heated through. This chowder should not boil or it could curdle. Stir in butter until it melts and adjust seasonings if necessary. Ladle into shallow bowls to serve. Pass reserved salt pork bits for sprinkling on top if desired.

4 servings. Each serving: 954 calories; 1,653 mg sodium; 246 mg cholesterol; 40 grams fat; 69 grams carbohydrates; 76 grams protein; 3.35 grams fiber.

Note: Follow the directions in the body of the recipe for steaming the clams open, or you can shuck the raw clams relatively easily, if you prefer. First scrub the clams well to remove as much mud as possible. Use a small sturdy knife to separate the two shells, then scrape out the bodies, working over a bowl to catch any juices. Strain the flavorful liquor through a double layer of cheesecloth. This is clam liquor. If using raw clams, cook them about 5 minutes longer in the chowder.

*

Dojny lives in Connecticut and is author of “The New England Cookbook” (Harvard Common Press, $29.95).