WetLeather Recipe Database - food for bikers

Name:	Clam Chowder	Contributor:	Leigh Ann Hussey
Description:	New England-style clam chowder	Posted:	1994-10-21
Key words:	chowder, soup	Category:	Soups
ID:	187	Updated:	2006-01-14 17:28:11
Ingredients:	1 onion 1-2 potatoes 4 slices bacon 2-3 cans chopped clames 1 pint half-and-half ground black pepper butter
Preparation:	Chop up and fry an onion and a couple of potatoes; I like to chop up bacon, render the grease, then fry the onion and potatoes in that. Take one additional potato and slice it as paper-thin as you can get it; the idea is that one is going to dissolve and thicken the chowder. Now, I consider thickening with flour to be cheating, but if you don't have time, or feel the need, be sure to toss in the flour while the onions are cooking, to allow for the floury taste to be cooked out. That way, too, you won't get lumps of flour in your chowder. Cover the potato (including the sliced one) and onion with water, bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat and cook until the sliced potato dissolves. Then add two or three cans of chopped clams, with their liquor, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add a pint of half-and-half and just heat through. Don't let it boil, or the milk will break down and the whole mess will look unappetizing. You can modify this recipe to suit, with other seafood stuff. But always begin with grease, onion, potato, boil it up with water, then add fish products (mussels, canned shrimp, I've even used smoked oysters), then milk. Serve with ground pepper and a dollop of butter (if you want to be really decadent).
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