Growing up near coastal waters is not a requirement for loving chowder.
The chunky stew might have originated on French and English fishing boats in New England and Nova Scotia, but its popularity grew as North Americans moved west and still longed for the ocean. Canned clams made it easier to make traditional chowder, but home cooks started adapting their chowders to reflect other ingredients they could source locally, including chicken and corn.
Brooke Dojny, author of “Chowderland: Hearty Soups & Stews with Sides & Salads to Match” (Storey Publishing, $14.95), defines chowder as a chunky, hearty soup, usually made with salt pork or bacon, onions, potatoes, the main ingredient (often seafood) and a liquid.
The word probably comes from the French term for cauldron, “chaudiere,” and it’s one of those one-pot comfort foods that people seem to have an affinity for, at least once we cast aside any memories of pasty chowders so white and thick that they might as well be cream gravy.
Originally, the stew was served on ships and, as such, was thickened with hardtack, those tooth-cracking biscuits that took forever to spoil. Dojny writes that chowder first appeared in an American cookbook in 1800, with ingredients including bass, salt pork and crackers, with a side dish of potatoes.
Once potatoes were more widely available, cooks started using them to thicken their chowders and serving the biscuits or crackers on the side.
Dojny offers dozens of variations on the classics in her new book, as well as general tips for improving the chowders you’re already making.
She writes about regional chowders made from geoduck, salmon, mussels, crabs, clams and shrimp. In Rhode Island, they serve a clear-broth chowder with clam fritters, while Manhattan-style clam chowder has a clear broth with tomatoes and, occasionally, condensed tomato soup instead of milk. To show just how versatile this singular soup can be, the Maine-based author includes a recipe for a chowder made with corned beef and cabbage.
If you go the traditional route, canned clams, bottled clam juice and store-bought seafood broth will save you quite a bit of time and shopping. But an entirely homemade chowder, with freshly steamed clams or another protein of your choice, such as smoked salmon, could be a fine centerpiece for a welcoming wintertime party.
One of the biggest troubles with chowders is that if you add dairy, from heavy cream to skim milk, it can “break” after you add it to the pot. Dojny says that curdling can happen more often with low-fat or skim milk because there isn’t enough fat in the liquid to bind to the potatoes and/or flour. The fresher the dairy, the less likely to curdle, too, Dojny says.
Any kind of dairy can break if you boil the chowder too hard. If your milk does curdle, you can strain out the solids and put the liquid in a blender to bring it all back together. You can skip the dairy altogether and still get that sweet cream flavor by boiling corncobs or using a nondairy milk, such as coconut.
When it comes to the thickening agent, floury potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, will release the most amount of starch and help thicken the stew, but you can supplement with flour or a flour substitute. You can use a red potato, but it won’t thicken the broth as well as the starchy kind.
Bacon or salt pork has been part of chowder from the beginning, but Dojny points out that you can used smoked fish (or, not to get ahead of ourselves, leftover smoked Thanksgiving turkey), which can lend a similar flavor without the pork.
Rendering the bacon first gives you a flavorful base on which to start building the soup. If you are making a retro pot with salt pork, you might need a little extra butter. (Slice the rind off the salt pork and then dice the meat. You can also pulse it in a food processor to get the meat into smaller pieces.)
No matter what you end up throwing in the pot, don’t forget the crackers, even if just as an homage to the shipmates who didn’t have much of a choice of what went into their chowder.
Boston-Style Creamy Clam Chowder
For this classic chowder, dried thyme is more traditional than fresh, but feel free to use either. If you have fresh clams, scrub 5 to 6 pounds and steam them in 4 cups of water just until they open, 5 to 10 minutes. Then scrape out the clam meat and chop into pea-size pieces. Pour the cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup, let any sediment settle, and pour off 3 cups of the clean broth to use in place of the bottled clam juice.
Chopped hard-shell clams (with their liquor) can be found fresh or frozen in the seafood section of most supermarkets. Bottled clam juice is usually shelved with the canned fish in the supermarket.
— Brooke Dojny
4 oz. salt pork or bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice or ground in the food processor (about 1 cup)
4-6 Tbsp. butter, plus more if needed
1 large onion, chopped
1 large celery stalk, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 cups bottled clam juice
2 cups water, plus more if needed
1 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3 cups)
2 tsp. dried thyme or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh
1 bay leaf, broken in half
3 cups chopped hard-shell clams with their liquor
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
Cook the salt pork or bacon with the butter in a large heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat until crisp and the fat is rendered, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the cooked bits with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and reserve. If you don’t have 8 tablespoons of fat in the pot, make up the difference with additional butter.
Add the onion and celery and cook over medium heat until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle on the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the clam juice and water and bring to a boil over high heat, whisking until smooth.
Add the potatoes, thyme and bay leaf, and cook, covered, over medium-low heat until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Add the clams and cream, cook for 5 minutes, and remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the chowder sit at cool room temperature for at least an hour or, better yet, refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Reheat over low heat, adding more broth cream, or water if the chowder is too thick. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with parsley and pass the reserved pork bits (reheated in the microwave) for sprinkling on the chowder if desired. Serves 4-5.
— From “Chowderland: Hearty Soups & Stews with Sides & Salads to Match” by Brooke Dojny (Storey Publishing, $14.95)
Gulf Coast Crab Chowder with Bacon and Chives
Fresh crab straight out of the Gulf is one of life’s best indulgences. Add that crab to a steaming bowl of hearty chowder, top it with crispy bacon and chives and you’ve got a little piece of paradise. This chowder is dairy- and grain-free but thick and creamy just the same. — Jennifer Robins
5 Tbsp. tapioca flour
5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups organic chicken broth
3 cups flax, almond or coconut milk
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce or coconut aminos
1 tsp. onion powder
Sea salt to taste
1 lb. fresh lump crabmeat
For serving:
1 lb. cooked bacon, chopped
Handful of fresh chives, minced
In a deep stockpot, whisk together the tapioca flour and olive oil over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add in the onion, celery, garlic and red bell pepper and continue cooking until the vegetables soften, about 8 minutes. You will want to stir this mixture regularly as the flour mixture can easily stick to the pan if left unattended. Once the vegetables are softened, pour in the broth and milk. Stir well until any and all lumps are incorporated.
Add the black pepper, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire, onion powder and sea salt. Bring to a simmer over high heat and allow to cook for about 30 minutes. Gently incorporate the lump crabmeat and stir. Crab is delicate and can break apart easily, so take care. Continue to cook on high for another 10 minutes, or until piping hot. Serve garnished with the crispy bacon and minced chives. Serves 6.
— From “Down South Paleo: Delectable Southern Recipes Adapted for Gluten-free, Paleo Eaters” by Jennifer Robins (Page Street Publishing, $21.99)
Summer Corn and Vegetable Chowder
In this dish, we’re using Aleppo pepper to add complexity and heat to a lightly creamy chowder brimming with seasonal produce. And for extra summery flavor, we’re boiling corncobs together with the vegetables to enrich the broth.
— Blue Apron editors
1 cup low-fat milk
3 cloves garlic
3 oz. spinach
2 ears corn
2 stalks celery
1 lemon
1 red onion
1/2 lb. fingerling potatoes
1/4 lb. French breakfast radishes
1 bunch tarragon
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. Aleppo pepper
Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Roughly chop the spinach. Remove and discard the husks and silks of the corn. Cut the corn kernels off the cobs; reserve the cobs. Thinly slice the celery. Quarter and deseed the lemon. Peel, halve and thinly slice the onion. Slice the potatoes into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Trim off and discard the ends of the radishes; small dice the radishes. Pick the tarragon leaves off the stems; discard the stems and finely chop the leaves.
In a large pot, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil on medium-high until hot. Add the garlic, onion, celery and potatoes; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes, or until fragrant and the onion has softened slightly.
Add the corn kernels, corncobs, milk and 1 1/2 cups of water to the pot; season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 to 7 minutes, or until the broth is slightly reduced in volume and the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
Stir the radishes into the pot; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 to 4 minutes, or until the radishes have softened. Carefully remove and discard the corncobs.
Stir the tarragon, spinach, butter and the juice of all 4 lemon wedges into the pot; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 to 4 minutes, or until the spinach has wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
Divide the finished soup between 2 bowls. Top with as much of the Aleppo pepper as you’d like, depending on how spicy you’d like the dish to be. Enjoy. Serves 2.
— From “Summer Cooking with Blue Apron” (Blue Apron, $29.95)
Corn Chowder with Chive Oil
This corn chowder has a touch of sweetness, thanks to the combination of fresh corn and a splash of coconut milk. Potatoes add thickness — a trick you can use to make almost any soup creamier. After the soup is cooked, blend it a bit for a chunky soup, or completely for a silky smooth soup. The chive oil has a delicate flavor that adds freshness and balances the sweetness of the corn.
— Gena Hamshaw
1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. new potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
Kernels from 6 ears of corn (about 3 1/2 cups)
4 cups vegetable broth, plus more if needed
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the chive oil:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 oz. chives, coarsely chopped
To make the chowder, heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until barely tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the potatoes and paprika and cook, stirring constantly, for a couple of minutes.
Stir in the corn, broth and salt and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are very tender, about 25 minutes, adding a bit more broth if the soup starts to resemble a thick stew. However, don’t add too much additional broth, or the final soup will be too thin.
Using an immersion blender (or using a regular blender and working in batches), blend the soup until it is about half pureed, with some texture and visible pieces of potato remaining. Stir in the coconut milk, then season with black pepper. Taste and adjust the seasonings if desired.
To make the chive oil, put the olive oil and chives in a blender and process until smooth. Season with salt to taste. Serve the chowder with the chive oil drizzled over the top. Serves 6.
— From “Food52 Vegan: 60 Vegetable-Driven Recipes for Any Kitchen” by Gena Hamshaw (Ten Speed Press, $22.99)
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