Clam Chowder - From a New England Famous Rest
Submitted by hberry
An old-school New England clam chowder built on rendered salt pork, a quart of chopped clams, cubed potatoes, and whole milk finished with butter. No flour, no cream, just pure Yankee tradition.
YIELD
1 potPREP
15 minCOOK
45 minREADY
1 hrsThis is the kind of chowder that put New England on the culinary map.
No roux, no heavy cream, no shortcuts. Salt pork gets rendered into crispy cracklings, onions cook golden in the fat, and a full quart of chopped clams simmers for 25 minutes until they’re tender and the broth is rich with brine.
Potatoes, milk, butter, and those crunchy salt pork cracklings all come together at the end in a bowl that tastes like it was served dockside at a weathered clapboard restaurant somewhere on the Massachusetts coast.
Serve with oyster crackers. Always.
Kitchen Tips
- Render the salt pork slowly over medium-low heat. Rushing it means chewy, greasy bits instead of golden cracklings.
- Cook the potatoes separately and add them at the end to keep them from turning to mush in the broth.
- Let the finished chowder sit for 10 minutes off the heat before serving. The flavors settle and deepen.
Ingredients
Directions
Cut salt pork into small dices and render in a sauce pan.
Reserve the cracklings.
Cook in the fat the onion thinly sliced until golden.
Bring the water to a boil and cook potatoes, (peeled and cubed), for 10 minutes.
Remove potatoes.
Add chopped clams and cook for 25 minutes. Then add milk, cracklings, potatoes, onion, butter, salt and pepper to taste. Serve in soup bowls with dot crackers.
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