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wrote:

> It turned out great! I shared it with my neighbours, who enjoyed it as
> much as I did.
>
> New England Clam Chowder
> Chef Paul Prudhomme, _Seasoned America_

I read this recipe and, frankly, got a laugh out of it. While
Prudhomme is a most impressive cook and I'm sure this is wonderfully
tasty, he has gilded this lily to conceptual incomprehensibility. This
recipe is from the "if 5 ingredients are good, 25 are better." And "If
one complex process is good, 6 are better."

It's a peeve of mine to see people so drastically mess with an
essentially classic recipe and technique package and still retain the
old name. This is not New England clam chowder.

In New England, clam chowder is usually essentially cream of potato
soup with clams in it, with small local variations. This Prudhomme
recipe is cajun or creole "New England clam chowder." Clams most
frequently used are quahogs (pronounced coh-hogs for some reason. Like
the geoducks of the northwest pronounced gooey-ducks. Clams take a hit
in the phonetics department.) which are large. They're chopped into
rather small bits, both to release more flavor and because it would be
like chewing a running shoe otherwise.

Here's a NECC note from Pat Solley who probably knows more about soup
than any living soul. <http://www.soupsong.com/rclam1.html> Three
recipes (sorta), one rhyming. Note that flour is used as part of a
roux or as ground ship's biscuits. Relatively common way of
thickening. The other major way is to do a two-stage cook with
potatoes. Cook half (in stock or broth) until they literally fall
apart and then add the remaining ingredients. The first batch of spuds
is for thickening.

Canned clams work as well as or even better than fresh in this.
They're already cooked, have rendered their juice which should be
incorporated into the soup, and are tender.

Pastorio

> Makes 12 main-course servings
> or 16 first-course servings
>
> There is probably no other dish native to New England about which New
> Englanders disagree more. No one is certain who first came up with the
> idea of cooking seafood in milk, but it seems likely that the
> combination arrived in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century with
> settlers from Old England. There always has been debate about how to
> properly thicken a clam chowder, and we agree with those who refuse to
> use flour, since it tends to neutralize the pungency of the clams. Our
> recipe depends on both diced and grated potatoes, which not only
> thicken the soup naturally but add a flavor of potato to every
> mouthful, complementing the clams perfectly.
>
> SEASONING MIX
>
> 1 1/4 teaspoons white pepper
> 1 1/4 teaspoons black pepper
> 1 1/4 teaspoons onion powder
> 1 1/4teaspoons garlic powder
> 1 1/4 teaspoons dry mustard
> 1 1/4 teaspoons dried sweet basil leaves
> 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
> 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
> 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
>
> 1/2 pound salt pork, diced (see Note)
> 2 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
> 1 cup chopped onions
> 1 cup chopped green bell peppers
> 1 cup chopped celery
> 4 cups clam liquid (can be bottled clam juice), in all
> 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all
> 4 cups milk
> 4 cups diced peeled potatoes
> 2 cups heavy cream
> 4 dozen shucked hard-shell clams, with their liquid
> 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
> Salt, optional (see Note)
>
> Combine the seasoning mix ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl. Makes
> 3 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon.
>
> Place the salt pork in a large heavy pot (not cast iron) over high
> heat, cover, and cook until the pork is sticking hard to the bottom of
> the pot, about 8 minutes. Add the grated potatoes, the onions, bell
> peppers, celery, and 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of the seasoning
> mix. Scrape the bottom of.the pot well, cover, and cook 3 minutes. Add
> 3 cups of the clam juice, scrape the pot bottom clean, and cook,
> scraping the bottom of the pot often, about 13 minutes. Stir in the
> remaining 1 cup clam juice, scrape the crust from the bottom of the
> pot, and cook 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of the butter and cook,
> scraping the pot bottom occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add the
> remaining seasoning mix and cook, whisking constantly to break up the
> potatoes and release their starch to thicken the chowder, 4 minutes.
> Stir in the milk and bring just to the boiling point, then add the
> diced potatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium and
> cook, uncovered, scraping often, until the potatoes are tender, about
> 20 minutes. Watch the pot closely: If the soup begins to bubble too
> much, reduce the heat, so the milk won't curdle. Add the remaining 3
> tablespoons butter and the heavy cream and whip with the whisk. Scrape
> the bottom of the pot, stir, turn up the heat a bit, and cook just
> until the soup begins to bubble gently. Add the clams, cook 1 to 2
> minutes, and remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley and salt, if
> necessary. Makes about 16 cups.
>
> Serve the chowder in deep soup bowls with crusty bread.
>
> NOTE: Salt pushes the flavors of the other seasonings in this dish.
> Because salt pork differs depending on where it's processed, yours may
> be saltier or less salty than ours. If it comes thickly encrusted with
> salt, rinse some of it off and pat dry before dicing. Taste the chowder
> at the end, and, if necessary, add salt cautiously until the flavor is
> just right.
>
> Derek's notes:
>
> I added 1 teaspoon dried dill weed and 1 teaspoon dried Aleppo red
> pepper flakes to seasoning mix. I used bacon instead of salt pork,
> sauteeing the onion/celery/bell pepper in some of the bacon fat. I
> used grated Russet potato, and diced Yukon Gold potato. I used canned
> clams instead of live.
>
> Derek Juhl
>