The Oldest Published Clam Chowder Recipe Recipe
Yield: 1 info fileRecipe by luhu.jp
Ingredients:
Information Only,
Directions:
The following is from "Down East Chowder", a small booklet printed in
Boston by John Thorne in 1982.
The recipe comes from the Boston Evening Post, September 23, 1751,
and is the first known chowder recipe - and the first one ever to
appear in this country.
"Directions for making a CHOUDER
First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from burning,
Because in Chouder there can be no turning;
Then lay some Pork in Slices very thin,
Thus you in Chouder always must begin.
Next lay some Fish cut crossways very nice
Then season well with Pepper, Salt and Spice;
Parsley, Sweet-Marjoram, Savory and Thyme,
Then Biscuit next which must be soakd some Time.
Thus your Foundation laid, you will be able
To raise a Chouder, high as Tower of Babel;
For by repeating ore the Same again,
You may make Chouder for a thousand Men.
Last Bottle of Claret, with Water eno to smother em,
Youl have a Mess which some call Omnium gather em. "
Mr. Thorne also notes that this recipe shows Americans of the time
were still cooking from Elizabethan sources by the complex use of
herbs and spice. Also, the onions show that the salt pork of the
time was not the fatty bacon-like meat we know today. The onions
absorbed the liquid and kept the pork from burning on the bottom of
the pot. He also noted that today we would not use that much or that
type of wine in the recipe. "Claret is necessary to stand up to the
powerful flavoring of the whole... but if you were to make such a
recipe, the result would be a huge, scarlet-colored, fish-flavored
pudding. This is certainly what the original, ocean-born chowders
resembled, not only because it was a rib-sticking meal for men who
needed the calories, but also because it uses a minimum of one of the
most precious of shipboard supplies: water. These layered chowders
persist in our cooking up to this century because this form of
chowder represented a high-calorie, inexpensive, easy-to-prepare
meal. The huge amount of fish (and later clams) that these recipes
call for was then the norm. As Waverley Root and Richard de
Rochemont write in EATING IN AMERICA: "A single chicken does not
exist. Take a pair of large fat fowls, says the recipe for rich
white soup in Eliza Leslies DIRECTIONS FOR COOKERY (1828), naming
the smallest conceivable unit of poultry..."
Quoted text is from "Down East Chowder" by Jim Thorne, published in
1982 by Jackdaw Press, Box 371, Essex Station, Boston MA 02112.
Submitted By DAVE SACERDOTE On 12-06-95
Source from luhu.jp
Boston by John Thorne in 1982.
The recipe comes from the Boston Evening Post, September 23, 1751,
and is the first known chowder recipe - and the first one ever to
appear in this country.
"Directions for making a CHOUDER
First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from burning,
Because in Chouder there can be no turning;
Then lay some Pork in Slices very thin,
Thus you in Chouder always must begin.
Next lay some Fish cut crossways very nice
Then season well with Pepper, Salt and Spice;
Parsley, Sweet-Marjoram, Savory and Thyme,
Then Biscuit next which must be soakd some Time.
Thus your Foundation laid, you will be able
To raise a Chouder, high as Tower of Babel;
For by repeating ore the Same again,
You may make Chouder for a thousand Men.
Last Bottle of Claret, with Water eno to smother em,
Youl have a Mess which some call Omnium gather em. "
Mr. Thorne also notes that this recipe shows Americans of the time
were still cooking from Elizabethan sources by the complex use of
herbs and spice. Also, the onions show that the salt pork of the
time was not the fatty bacon-like meat we know today. The onions
absorbed the liquid and kept the pork from burning on the bottom of
the pot. He also noted that today we would not use that much or that
type of wine in the recipe. "Claret is necessary to stand up to the
powerful flavoring of the whole... but if you were to make such a
recipe, the result would be a huge, scarlet-colored, fish-flavored
pudding. This is certainly what the original, ocean-born chowders
resembled, not only because it was a rib-sticking meal for men who
needed the calories, but also because it uses a minimum of one of the
most precious of shipboard supplies: water. These layered chowders
persist in our cooking up to this century because this form of
chowder represented a high-calorie, inexpensive, easy-to-prepare
meal. The huge amount of fish (and later clams) that these recipes
call for was then the norm. As Waverley Root and Richard de
Rochemont write in EATING IN AMERICA: "A single chicken does not
exist. Take a pair of large fat fowls, says the recipe for rich
white soup in Eliza Leslies DIRECTIONS FOR COOKERY (1828), naming
the smallest conceivable unit of poultry..."
Quoted text is from "Down East Chowder" by Jim Thorne, published in
1982 by Jackdaw Press, Box 371, Essex Station, Boston MA 02112.
Submitted By DAVE SACERDOTE On 12-06-95
Source from luhu.jp