🇺🇸 United States · New England
Fish chowder
The original New England chowder: cod, haddock or pollock simmered with salt pork, onion and potato in fish stock and finished with milk or cream, thickened with crackers rather than flour.
Origin and history
Fish chowder is the older form of New England chowder. The Christian Science Monitor reports that it began as a simple meal of whatever fish and salt pork early settlers had, later thickened with biscuits, and that clams became a substitute for fish as farming expanded. A 1751 Boston Evening Post verse is among the earliest known chowder recipes. Lydia Maria Child printed a layered fish chowder in 1830, and Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) gives cod or haddock with salt pork, onion, potatoes, milk and crackers.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 45 min
- Hands-on
- 30 min
Ingredients
- 115 g4 oz salt pork, finely diced; bacon if salt pork is unavailable
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced, about 3 cups
- 1 bay leaf
- 3/4 cup common or oyster crackers, crumbled
- 950 ml4 cups fish stock, or half clam juice, half water
- 3 large potatoes, peeled, cut in thin half-moons
- 475 ml2 cups whole milk or light cream
- 1 kg2 1/4 lb skinless, boneless cod, haddock, hake or pollock, cut in 5 cm (2 in) chunks
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- chopped parsley and oyster crackers, to serve
Method
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1. Blanch the salt pork in simmering water for 5 minutes to remove excess salt, then drain, rinse and pat dry.
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2. In a heavy pot over low heat, cook the pork with the butter for about 5 minutes, until the fat renders and the pork starts to brown.
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3. Add the onions and bay leaf, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent.
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4. Stir in the cracker crumbs, then add the stock and potatoes.
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5. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer loosely covered for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
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6. Add the milk and the fish. Cover and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, until the fish turns opaque and flakes. Do not boil.
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7. Season with salt and pepper, remove the bay leaf and serve with parsley and oyster crackers.
Notes
- Fish chowder is the older form of New England chowder; clams came later as a substitute for fish. It is a different soup from clam chowder and from mixed seafood chowder.
- Salt pork and crackers are the classic choices rather than flour. Lydia Maria Child's 1830 Frugal Housewife layers fish, crackers, onion and potatoes with bacon and bakes the pot with a flour-and-water liquid, so thickening has varied.
- Cod and haddock are the fish in Fannie Farmer's recipe; this version, after Julia Child, also allows hake, pollock or halibut. Use lean, firm white fish.
- Fannie Farmer makes the stock from the fish head, tail and bones (about 20 minutes in water); ask your fishmonger for them if you want that route instead of fish stock or clam juice. Cream instead of milk makes it richer.
- Salt pork varies in saltiness, so blanching it first helps control the seasoning. Make-ahead: reheat gently, never boiling.
Adapted from Julia Child, The Way to Cook (as published by Yankee Magazine), Fannie Farmer, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, and Lydia Maria Child, The Frugal Housewife (1830).
At the festivals
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