The Ravenous Guide to Chowder

This is the Ravenous Guide lens on all things chowder related. Growing up in New England and now living in the Pacific Northwest, I've developed a passion for a wide variety of chowders.

I've been working as a professional cook and chef for most of the last twenty years and once worked at a hotel in Massachusetts that won New England chowderfest.

One of my earliest food loves as a kid was the fish chowder at the No Name Restaurant in Boston. All the leftover fish from the day before, milk, some butter and not much else. You'll find that recipe on the recipe lens for East Coast Chowders.

Follow the links for recipe pages for East Coast Chowders, West Coast Chowders, and Gourmet Chowders.

On this page, you'll find some key recipes, resources for learning about the history and culture of chowder, great cookbooks for chowder recipes and info on chowderfests and cook-offs around the country.

If you find this page useful, please take a moment and give it a star rating.

Thanks, - M.B.

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The Ravenous Guide

Navigating Around the Ravenous Guide

The Ravenous Blog: A daily journal on food, cooking, nutrition, and the restaurant scene.
The Ravenous Guide Homepage: Start here to find any Ravenous resource.
Ravenous Recipes: East Coast Chowders: This is where it all began. (If you don't count the northern coastline of France or the southern coastline of England.) And I think these are the best recipes.
Ravenous Recipes: West Coast Chowders: From California's chile laced chowders, to Oregon coast geoduck clam chowder and crab chowder to Alaskan salmon chowder we'll show you the vibrant chowder culture of the West Coast
Ravenous Recipes: Gourmet Chowders: From Bahamian Conch Chowder to French Chaudree to Latin American Chupes, we'll look at chowders from all over the world.

Seafood Safety and Sustainability

OceansAlive.org: Great resource for check for health warnings on seafood as well as sustainability issues. - Please check your ingredients before you go shopping:

Clams - Haddock - Cod - Mackerel - Halibut - Trout - Catfish - Lobster
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch: Monitors sustainable fishing issues.

BOOKSTORE: Sustainable Seafood

One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook

by Baldwin Cc, Carole C. Baldwin, Julie H. Mounts

Amazon Price: $25.55 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $35.00
Used Price: $4.19

Usually ships in 24 hours

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Saveur Magazine on Chowder

Whenever I research a cooking topic, I always start with Saveur magazine. Their article on New England Chowder is a great place to start.

Chowder Country: Miles Chapin reports on his quest for the definitive New England Clam Chowder recipe.
New England Clam Chowder: This is Miles Chapin's chowder recipe, inspired by Jim Baker's chowder at Plymouth's Old Colony Club.
Chuck's Three Day Chowder: "I've got a whole bookshelf on the subject," says Chuck Davis, Miles Chapin's cousin and personal chowder consultant. "My chowder, well, it's a little different than everybody else's." Chuck's three-day theory is based on his quest for clear fish stock: Two days, he says, are needed for "sludge" and fat to separate.
Lobster and Corn Chowder: Cary Wheaton, co-owner of the East Coast Grill in Cambridge, first mixed up this chowder after a lobster- and corn-filled vacation in Westport, Massachusetts.
Manhattan Clam Soup: Saveur searches for the origin of the abomination known as Manhattan Clam Chowder.
The Other East Hampton: Hilary Mills explores the intersection of the farming and fishing communities of Long Island.

Check out the recipe for grilled bluefish.
Bonac Clam Chowder: East Hampton's Ladies Village Improvement Society has published 13 cookbooks since 1896, each one with a different clam chowder recipe. This version is adapted from the 1898 edition.

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DOSSIER: Chowder

Wikipedia: Chowder: Brief history of chowder. The highlight is Daniel Webster's recipe for chowder:

Four tablespoonfuls of onions, fried with pork; a quart of boiled potatoes well mashed; 1 1/2 pounds of sea biscuit broken; 1 teaspoonful of thyme mixed with one of summer savory: 1/2 bottle of mushroom catsup; one bottle of port or claret; 1/4 of a nutmeg, grated; a few cloves, mace, and allspice; 6 pounds fish (sea-bass or cod), cut into slices; 25 oysters, a little black pepper, and a few slices of lemon. The whole put in a pot and covered with an inch of water, boiled for an hour and gently stirred.
History of Chowder: Linda Stradley at WhatsCookingInAmerica.net provides an absolutely gorgeous blow by blow history of chowder over the last 400 years.

Little taster:

1796 - The first cookbook authored by an American was Amelia Simmons's American Cookery or The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables and The Best Modes of Making Pastes, Puffs, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake, Adapted at This Country and All Grades of Life, published in 1796. Her first edition, published in the same year, did not include any soups. The second edition, published in 1800, was the first American cookbook to give a chowder recipe:

Chouder - Take a bass weighing four pounds, boil half an hour; take six slices raw salt pork, fry them till the lard is nearly extracted, one dozen crackers soaked in cold water five minutes; put the bass into the lard, also the pieces of pork and crackers, cover close, and fry for 20 minutes; serve with potatoes, pickles, apple-sauce or mangoes; garnish with green parsley."
East Vs. West: The Quest for the Perfect Chowder: Anne Jennings submits an on the road memoir of East Vs. West bi-coastal quest for the perfect bowl of chowder. From On The Page Magazine.

Here's sample:

We had better luck on Cape Ann at the Portside Chowder House-n-Grille in Rockport, Massachusetts. Rockport itself is worth the drive for its quirky art galleries and window boxes full of petunias and pansies. Portside Chowder House-n-Grille has the added benefit of being located next to Helmut's Strudel Shop (your choice of cheese, cherry, or apple). We took our to-go cups and sat on the wharf beside a tall ship, her lines clacking against the masts in the brisk wind. The chowder was unassuming-buttery yellow, just the right amount of sand, celery, and potatoes, a bay leaf floating in the cup, sailboats bobbing in the small, rock-bound harbor.

I had sampled nine New England clam chowders. Pretty good for a five-day trip.

"We can go home now," I said.
The History of Cod Chowder and Fish Stews: Linda Stradley writes in The History of Cod Chowder and Fish Stews about how fishermen brought chowder over from southern England and northern France to New Foundland and spread it down to New England.

. . . the chowder spread to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and down the coast to New England. The sailor generally had enough food when sailing, but it was of poor quality. Since fishermen generally went on voyages for long periods of time, anywhere from 6 to 9 months, ships had to be stocked with a large quantity of food that would be able to last without spoiling. The main form of preservative was salting, so the bulk of provisions taken aboard sailing ships was salt beef, salt pork, salt fish, and ship's biscuit or hard tack, which was a very coarse, hard bread (records exist which show that some of these biscuits were being issued up to 40 years after they were baked). Soaking the hard bread and salt cod would produce a kind of salt-cod chowder similar to the fresh chowder that the fishermen ate in their homeland. Shark meat, their main source of fresh meat, was especially common with British seamen in making chowder.
History of New England Clam Chowder: Again, Linda Stradley:

Even in New England, known for the Boston or New England-style chowders, you can find different types of clam chowder. New Englanders use the Native American term quahog. The name quahog derives from the Narragansett Indian name for "poquauhock." The scientific name, mercenaria, of these clams comes from Latin meaning "wages." because Native Americans strung the shells like beads and used them as money or "wampum." Quahogs replace fish in the fish-milk stews of coastal England and France to become New England chowder. Prounounced "chowdah" by people situated north of Connecticut.

In Maine, those living on one side of Penobscot Bay like their clam chowder made with tomatoes, while those living on the other side like it made with milk and no tomatoes. Maine residents often call their region "Down East" and their chowder "Down East Chowder." . .
On Bermuda Fish Chowder: Linda Stradley:

This chowder is considered to be Bermuda's national dish, differs from American versions by its dark, rich color and the finely minced quality of the ingredients. They use browning or burnt sugar to obtain a dark brown color. A British dish that came over with the first colonists in the mid 1600s, not an original American dish as commonly thought. . .
On Minorcan Chowder: Linda Stradley:

. . . St. Augustine, Florida, has its own famous hopped-up version called Minorcan clam chowder. Hopped up, it is! This tomato based, Manhattan-style chowder has one very potent ingredient: datil pepper. Datil peppers are hotter than jalapeno or Tabasco peppers but not quite as hot as habeneros. They are green to yellow-orange, and a little bigger than a jalapeno. Long lines of diners at local restaurants attest to the popularity of this fiery chowder. Most historians, when writing about clam chowder, fail to mention Minorcan. Maybe it's because they don't know about it, or because the datil pepper used in this chowder is grown only in the St. Augustine area.

The Minorcan tale and the Minorcan clam chowder began when eight ships were launched off the coast of Spain (Mediterranean Island of Minorca) in 1768. The 1,403 passengers on board were bound for an indigo plantation in New Smyrna, south of St. Augustine. Though the Minorcans believed themselves to be contracted as indentured servants to Dr. Andrew Turnbull, the plantation's owner, the realty was a situation bordering on enslavement. For nine long years, the Minorcans were forced to endure suffering and hardship.

Settlers who managed to survive, escaped in 1777 from the plantation and made their way to St. Augustine, where they came under the protection of Governor Patrick Tonyn. They brought their own spices and cooking traditions with them, and the key ingredient was the datil pepper. . .
Moby Dick by Herman Melville: . . . and seating us at a table spread with the relics of a recently concluded repast, turned round to us and said - "Clam or Cod?"

"What's that about Cods, ma'am?" said I, with much politeness.

"Clam or Cod?" she repeated.

"A clam for supper? a cold clam; is that what you mean, Mrs. Hussey?" says I; "but that's a rather cold and clammy reception in the winter time, ain't it, Mrs Hussey?"

But being in a great hurry to resume scolding the man in the purple shirt, who was waiting for it in the entry, and seeming to hear nothing but the word "clam," Mrs. Hussey hurried towards an open door leading to the kitchen, and bawling out "clam for two," disappeared.

"Queequeg," said I, "do you think that we can make out a supper for us both on one clam?"

However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favorite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition: when leaning back a moment and bethinking me of Mrs. Hussey's clam and cod announcement, I thought I would try a little experiment. Stepping to the kitchen door, I uttered the word "cod" with great emphasis, and resumed my seat. In a few moments the savory steam came forth again, but with a different flavor, and in good time a fine cod- chowder was placed before us.

We resumed business; and while plying our spoons in the bowl, thinks I to myself, I wonder now if this here has any effect on the head? What's that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people? "But look, Queequeg, ain't that a live eel in your bowl? Where's your harpoon?"

Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots, which well deserved its name; for the pots there were always boiling chowders. Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes. The area before the house was paved with clam-shells. Mrs. Hussey wore a polished necklace of codfish vertebra; and Hosea Hussey had his account books bound in superior old shark-skin. There was a fishy flavor to the milk, too, which I could not at all account for, till one morning happening to take a stroll along the beach among some fishermen's boats, I saw Hosea's brindled cow feeding on fish remnants, and marching along the sand with each foot in a cod's decapitated head, looking very slip-shod, I assure ye.

Supper concluded, we received a lamp, and directions from Mrs. Hussey concerning the nearest way to bed; but, as Queequeg was about to precede me up the stairs, the lady reached forth her arm, and demanded his harpoon; she allowed no harpoon in her chambers. "Why not?" said I; "every true whaleman sleeps with his harpoon - but why not?" "Because it's dangerous," says she. "Ever since young Stiggs coming from that unfort'nt v'y'ge of his, when he was gone four years and a half, with only three barrels of ile, was found dead in my first floor back, with his harpoon in his side; ever since then I allow no boarders to take sich dangerous weepons in their rooms at night. So, Mr. Queequeg"(for she had learned his name), "I will just take this here iron, and keep it for you till morning. But the chowder; clam or cod to-morrow for breakfast, men?"

"Both," says I; "and let's have a couple of smoked herring by way of variety."

BOOKSTORE: Chowder Cookbooks That I Swear By

I swear a lot.

The New England Clam Shack Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Clam Shacks, Lobster Pounds & Chowder Houses

by Brooke Dojny

I need a handi wipe every time I pick up this cookbook. Just looking through all the pictures and stories of New England clam shacks, lobster pounds and chowder houses gets my hands all greasy and my chin covered in butter. - M.B.

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $16.95
Used Price: $2.55

50 Chowders: One Pot Meals - Clam, Corn, & Beyond

by Jasper White

Jasper White is the king hell daddy of New England cooking. If you're going to use someone else's chowder recipes you'd be crazy not to start with this book. - M.B.

Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $30.00
Used Price: $0.96

The New England Cookbook: 350 Recipies from Town and Country, Land and Sea, Hearth and Home

by Brooke Dojny

I was leafing through this book at my sister's house in Hunnington Beach, CA when I was visiting for Christmas one year and I grabbed my notebook and just started copying recipes by hand - one after another.

This summer my Mom bought me the book. So I tossed my notebook. I couldn't read my notes anyway.

I'll give you a head start if you ever get your paws on this one . . . her potato salad recipe was better than mine.

Until I changed my potato salad recipe. - M.B.

Amazon Price: $23.36 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $29.95
Used Price: $3.30

Shellfish Cookery: Absolutely Delicious Recipes from the West Coast

by John Doerper

I can't brag about this cookbook enough. Published in 1985 this book written by Seattle Times food critic John Doerper covers in detail everything you need to know to find and work with shellfish on the West Coast. Chapters include: Abalones & Limpets; Sea Snails & Escargots; Mussels; Oysters; Clams, Horse Clams & Geoducks; Octopi & Squid; Crabs; Crayfish; Spiny Lobster; Shrimps; and finally Barnacles. I mean this book COVERS it !!! Each chapter starts with information about it's chosen critter, where to find it, different varieties, how to work with it and then moves on to very well written, sound, delicious recipes. This is my kind of cookbook.

- M.B.

Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $12.95
Used Price: $0.20

BOOKSTORE: Crucial Seafood Books

Ocean Friendly Cuisine: Sustainable Seafood Recipes From The World's Finest Chefs

by James O. Fraioli

Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $35.00
Used Price: $2.37

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One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish: The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook

by Baldwin Cc, Carole C. Baldwin, Julie H. Mounts

Amazon Price: $25.55 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $35.00
Used Price: $4.19

Usually ships in 24 hours

Fish & Shellfish: The Definitive Cook's Companion

by James Peterson

Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $40.00
Used Price: $7.65

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BOOKSTORE: Magazine Rack

Saveur

Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $45.00

Cook's Illustrated

Amazon Price: $26.95 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price: $35.70

Gastronomica

Amazon Price: $48.00 (as of 07/25/2008)
List Price:

BOOKSTORE: Time/Life The Good Cook

Time/Life's Good Cook series is an absolute classic. Each volume has gorgeous photos detailing step by step the procedures described in the book. These books teach you How To like no others.