Chowder is a thick soup traditionally made by layering ingredients, including salt pork and ship’s biscuits. New England Clam Chowder, Manhattan Clam Chowder, and Rhode Island Clam Chowder are popular variations. Chowders can be made with whatever seafood is available.
A chowder is a rich, thick soup. The name chowder comes from the French word chaudière, the name of a cauldron in which the fisherman made the stews, or from jowter, the Old English word for a fish peddler. Unlike other thick, rich soups, which can be pureed before serving, soups typically are served with their chunky ingredients intact. Historically, those ingredients included salt pork and ship’s biscuits. Popular types of soup today include corn chowder and a wide variety of soups with ocean and river ingredients, including chowder, lobster bisque, gator chowder, mussel chowder, crab chowder, shrimp, salmon chowder and clam chowder.
Since their invention, chowders have been a type of soup that is often made with whatever ingredients are on hand, and by the 18th century, chowders were made with whatever seafood was available. The standard technique was to layer the ingredients. In 1832, the first written recipe specifically mentioning the inclusion of clams in chowder was recorded by Lydia Maria Child, remembered as an abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and author of the Thanksgiving poem, “Over the River and Through the Woods “. By the 1850s, the use of clams in chowder had become more standard, and several editions in Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School cookbook updates, there were distinct recipes for New England or New England or Clam Maine-style Chowder, Manhattan or Manhattan-style Clam Chowder, and Rhode Island Clam Chowder.
New England Clam Chowder, sometimes called Boston Clam Chowder, is prepared with a milk or cream base. Using a base of milk, clams, potatoes and onions, the soup is predominantly white. Herman Melville has a mouthwatering description of New England Clam Chowder, reputed to be Queequeg’s favorite food, in Chapter 15 of MoDick. Manhattan Clam Chowder, by contrast, is strikingly red, due to the tomato base. Rhode Island Clam Chowder is made with a clear broth or some tomato, but not as much as is used in the Manhattan-style dish. Recipes are also available for a Santa Fe version — which features spicy sausage instead of salt pork and chili — and combinations, such as clam chowder and corn.
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