 What is traditional chowder? The true or traditional
chowder is a matter of debate. There are numerous varieties, and each has its loyal
following. Just bring up the subject of chowder and most likely a debate will ensue as to
which style is the true, authentic chowder. True chowder lovers delight in their pursuit
of the perfect chowder, from creamy white to clear and briny to tomato based. Practically everyone claims their chowder
is “award-winning."
 Chowder has its roots in the Latin word
calderia, which originally meant a
place for warming things, and later came to mean cooking pot. The word
calderia also gave us cauldron, and in French became chaudiere. It is
also thought to come from the old English word jowter (a fish peddler).
A simple dish of chowder, in the
past considered to be "poor man's food," has a history that is centuries old.
Vegetables or fish stewed in a cauldron thus became known as chowder in English-speaking
nations, a corruption of the name of the pot or kettle in which they were cooked.
Different kinds of fish stews exist in almost every sea-bound country in the world.
Fish chowders were the forerunners of clam chowder. The chowders originally made by the
early settlers differed from other fish soups because they used salt pork and ship's
biscuits. Today most chowders do not include biscuits, but generally have crackers
sprinkled on top. The old-fashioned chowder builder made chowder out of just about
everything that flew, swam, or grew in the garden. When the main ingredient is fish or
shellfish it is usually called chowder although the term fish stew is also used. Clams,
hard or soft, were just one variety of seafood used and were eaten frequently, but there
was a certain season for clam chowder and certainly there were other occasions when clam
chowder was definitely not served.
16th & 17th Centuries
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word chowder to the fishing
villages along the coast of France from Bordeaux to Brittany. There are also early
European references made in the Cornwall region of Southwestern England and in the
Brittany region of northwestern France. These two regions are located across the English
Channel from one another. When the ships returned from the sea, every village had a large
chaudiere waiting for a portion of each man's catch, to be served later as part of the
community's welcoming celebration.
Clams and oysters were consumed in such quantities along the Atlantic coast by the
American Indians that, in some favorable gathering-places, empty shells were piled into
mounds ten feet high. According to the book Eating in American - A History, by
Waverley Root and Richard de Rochemont:
The Northeastern Indians made considerable use of fish, but the
Pilgrims were slow to follow their example; they did not care much for fish, except eels .
. . Fish chowder was a popular dish among Northeastern Indians, but as this dish has
been created spontaneously, in one form or another, along every coast in the world, we can
hardly credit the Indians with having introduced it to Europeans . . . Clams became
accepted to them in time, but it is on record that in 1620s the Pilgrims fed clams and
mussels to their hogs with the explanation that they were "the meanest of God's
blessings."
18th Century
1751 - Even before cookery books were published in America,
newspapers, magazines and travel accounts mentioned broth and soup as well as recorded
recipes. According to the book 50 Chowders by Jasper White, the first and
oldest-known printed fish chowder recipe was in the Boston Evening Post on September
23,1751. The use of herbs and spices in this recipe show the typical 18th century English
taste for lots of seasonings.
First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from burning
Because in Chouder there can be not turning;
Then lay some Pork in slices very thing,
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 soak'd some Time.
Thus your Foundation laid, you will be able
To raise a Chouder, high as Tower of Babel;
For by repeating o'er the Same again,
You may make a Chouder for a thousand men.
Last a Bottle of Claret, with Water eno; to smother 'em,
You'll have a Mess which some call Omnium gather 'em.
The first chowders were made with a technique called "layering chowder
ingredients." A layer is single thickness of some substance. Layering is the process
of making layers of different ingredients. The onions were used to prevent the lean pork
from burning.
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."
19th Century
1828 - Mary Randolph, cousin of Mary Custis (wife of Gen. Robert E.
Lee) and a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson, in her book The Virginia Housewife,
has a recipe called Chowder, A Sea Dish:
Take any kind of firm fish, cut it in pieces six inches long,
sprinkle salt and pepper over each piece, cover the bottom of a small Dutch oven with
slices of salt pork about half boiled, lay in the fish, strewing a little chopped onion
between; cover with crackers that have been soaked soft in milk, pour over it two gills of
white wine, and two of water; put on the top of the oven, and stew it gently about an
hour; take it out carefully, and lay it in a deep dish; thicken the gravy with a little
flour and a spoonful of butter, add some chopped parsley, boil it a few minutes, and pour
it over the fish - serve it up hot.
1832 -
Newspaperwoman,
novelist, and ardent advocate of women's rights, Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) published
her cookbook called The American Frugal Housewife. This cookbook was a
“must” for every bride of the mid-1800s. Lydia Child described the standard
layering technique of chowder-making, but also suggested additional ingredients such as
lemons, beer, tomato catsup, and the first written directions to add clams.
1841 -
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), writer and editor of Godey's
Lady's Book (the most popular women's magazine of the era). She used her platform as
editor to profile successful women who otherwise may have gone unnoticed. She effectively
called for the opening of the workplace to women. Sarah Hale is credited with convincing
President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), sixteenth President of the United States, to
declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. She had spent 40 years writing to congressmen,
lobbying five presidents, and writing countless editorials in her campaign to create an
official day of thanks. In 1841 she also wrote wrote The Good Housekeeper. In this
book, she describes how to make cod chowder:
To Make Chowder - Lay some slices cut from the
fat part of pork, in a deep stewpan, mix sliced onions with a variety of sweet herbs, and
lay them on the pork; bone and cut a frsh cod into thin slices, and place them on the
pork, then put a layer of pork, on that a layer of biscuit, then alternately the other
materials until the pan is nearly full, then season with pepper and salt, put in about a
quart of water, cover the stew pan very close, and let it stand, with fire above as well
as below, for four hours; then skim it well, and it is done. This is an excellent dish and
healthy, if not eaten too hot.
1850s - By the middle of the 1800's chowder was a mainstay throughout
the northeastern United States. Clams and shellfish began to be used in chowder because of
their relative ease to accumulate, having to simply dig them up from the shore. When the
country expanded to the Pacific Ocean the fishermen followed. As the fishermen's migration
continued from the Atlantic coast, the recipes for chowder were introduced along the way.
1884 - The
original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln (Mary Bailey) had a
recipe for Clam Chowder:
In Fannie Merritt Farmer's 1896
updated version of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, she has three recipe for
clam chowder - Clam Chowder, Connecticut Chowder, and Fish Chowder. Later editions have
recipes for New England Clam Chowder, Manhattan Chowder, and Rhode Island Clam Chowder.
Sources for history of different
chowders:
50 Chowders: One Pot Meals-Clam, Corn and Beyond, Jasper White, Glenn Wolff,
Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2000.
A Brief and Partial History of
the City of Salem, New Jersey, from The City of Salem Master Plan Historic
Preservation Element, 1991.
American Cookery, Amelia Simmons,
facsimile of the second edition printed in Albany, 1796 with an introduction by Karen Hess
[Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1996 (p. 22-3).
Bermuda cuisine explained -
Condiments, savories, appetizers,
main dishes and desserts,
by Keith Archibald Forbes, Bermuda Online, Royal Gazette newspaper.
Boston Cooking School Cook Book, A Reprint of the 1884 Classic, by Mrs. D. A.
Lincoln, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York, 1996.
Cod Fishing - The Trade, Maritime History,
Sea Book, by Doug
Ford, Jersey Heritage Trust
Early American Cookery, The Good Housekeeper, 1841, by Sarah Josepha Hale, A
Reprint of the 1841 Original Edition, Dover Publlications, Inc., Mineola, New York, 1996.
Eating in America: A History, by Waverley Root and Richard de Rochemont, The
Ecco Press, New York, 1976.
Food Timeline History Notes, Lynne Olver, Editor, Morris County Library, New
Jersey.
Forget creamy New England fare - Florida's First Coast boasts a chowder all its
own, by Catherine Enns Grigas, Waters-Edge Online Magazine.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851); New York: Mead and Co., 1942.
History of Soup, by Andrew F. Smith, ChefTalk.com.
History of the Union Oyster House.
Hoppin' John's
Lowcountry Cooking, by John Martin Taylor,
published by Bantam in 1992.
James Beard's American Cookery, by James Beard, Little, Brown and Company, 1972.
Minorcan Datil Peppers, by Jerry Delany.
Ranhofer, Charles. The Epicurean. A Complete Treatise of Analytical and
Practical Studies on the Culinary Art, Including Table and Wine Service, How to Prepare
and Cook Dishes? etc., and a Selection of Interesting Bills of Fare of Delmonico's from
1862 to 1894 (part 1). New York: C. Ranhofer, 1894.
Saltwater Foodways - New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the
nineteenth century, by Sandra L. Oliver, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc. Mystic, Connecticut,
1995.
Serious Pig - An American Cook in search of his roots, by John Thorne with Matt
Lewis Thorne, North Pooint Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1996.
Some facts about Mediterranean food history, Salted
Fish in the Mediterranean, by Clifford A. Wright.
Some Great Quotes, by Dr. Scott C. Smith.
The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia Maria Child,
Unabridged and unaltered Dover (1999)
republication of the edition published by Samuel S. & William Wood, New York, 1844
(29th edition).
The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, Little, Brown and
Company, Boston, Seventh Edition, 1943.
The Making of the Legend of Robert Gibbon Johnson
and the Tomato, by Andrew F. Smith, New Jersey History 108 (Fall/Winter 1990): 59-74.
The Minorcans
in St. Augustine, St. Augustine Visitor's Guide.
The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook, by Mrs. Mary Randolph,
Baltimore, published by Plaskitt, & Cugle (reproduced Antique American Cookbooks,
1984, Oxmoor House, Inc., Birmingham, AL).
What's in a chowder? Just about anything you want, by Aliza Green,
Knight Ridder News Service, Oregonian FOODay, Tuesday, February 27, 2001. |
