Chowdah

I am old enough to know how clam chowder has changed just in the time that I’ve been alive. In the last decade alone, it seems like there has been a race to see who can make the thickest chowdah!

Set your Way-Back Machine to the year of the Revolution… 1776! What was in their bowls back then looked more like Manhattan Clam Chowder. Brace yourself: the recipe consisted of clams, salt pork, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes in a clear broth.

Jumping forward to the 1830s and the recipe has morphed to…

CHOWDER RECIPE (1830)

The Frugal Housewife (1830)

Lydia Maria Child

TO MAKE A CHOWDER

Four pounds of fish are enough to make a chowder, for four or five people,—half dozen slices of salt pork in the bottom of the pot,—hang it high, so that the pork may not burn,—take it out when done very brown,—put in a layer of fish, cut in lengthwise slices,—then a layer formed of crackers, small or sliced onions, and potatoes sliced as thin as a four-pence, mixed with pieces of pork you have fried; then a layer of fish again, and so on. Six crackers are enough. Strew a little salt and pepper over each layer; over the whole pour a bowl full of flour and water, enough to come up even with the surface of what you have in the pot. A sliced lemon adds to the flavor. A cup of Tomato catsup is very excellent. Some people put in a cup of beer. A few clams are a pleasant addition. It should be covered so as not to let a particle of steam escape, if possible. Do not open it, except when nearly done, to taste if it be well seasoned.

OMG! There’s the tomatoes again!

In the 1920s, a lightning bolt split the chowder world apart. Those who worshipped New England called it Boston Clam Chowder, while those who still swore their allegiance to the tomato called it Rhode Island Red Chowder

Things got so heated that by 1939, a Maine politician actually tried to make putting tomatoes in chowder illegal! According to the New England Historical Society, the proposed law would have sentenced anti-creamy offenders to the impossible task of digging a barrel of clams at high tide.

It wasn't until the middle of the century that we saw chowder change from something resembling a clam stew into a true chowder.

Now, in the new century, we see chowdah get heavily thickened. It seems like a spoon needs to stand straight up in the bowl for it to even be called clam chowder anymore!

I prefer mine with milk or cream and no thickeners. One of the reasons I don’t like it thick is because the added starch spikes my blood sugar! When I'm on the Cape, I love going to Mac’s On The Pier—their chowdah is the perfect, traditional thin style.