New England Clam Chowder

New England clam chowder — clams, salt pork, onion, potato, and milk or cream, thickened by the potato's starch rather than by flour — is the oldest continuously made soup in American cooking and the subject of the most passionately defended regional food boundary in the Northeast. The chowder tradition arrived in New England through maritime routes: the French *chaudrée* (a fisherman's stew from the Atlantic coast of France) or the English *jowter* (a fish seller's pot) — the etymology is disputed, the result is not. By the 18th century, chowder was the food of the New England coast, made with whatever the boats brought in (cod, clam, fish) and whatever the larder held (salt pork, onion, potato, milk). The Manhattan vs. New England debate (tomato vs. cream) is not a debate in New England — it is an insult. In 1939, a Maine legislator introduced a bill making it illegal to add tomato to clam chowder. The bill did not pass. The sentiment persists.

A thick, creamy, ivory-coloured soup with tender clam pieces, soft potato, rendered salt pork, and onion in a milk-and-cream base thickened naturally by the potato's dissolved starch. The chowder should taste of clam — briny, sweet, mineral — with the salt pork providing a background smokiness and the cream providing richness without masking the shellfish. The consistency should be thick enough to coat a spoon but loose enough to pour. It should not be as thick as paste, and it should not taste primarily of cream.

Oyster crackers. A few grinds of black pepper on top. Common crackers (large, round, dry crackers split and buttered) are the old-school accompaniment. A cold beer or a dry white wine. Chowder is a meal — a bowl of chowder with crackers is lunch. It does not need a side dish.