New England Clam Chowder:

Clam Chowder of New England

by Anne Berline

Sea air, crisp apples, the brisk spice of fallen leaves: there are few things that say autumn in New England like the scents that seem to play with the senses from everywhere. Clam chowder symbolizes New England like apple pie symbolizes America. A saying goes, "When you live in New England, there are three basic truths... clam chowder is white…

"And the other two truths don't matter."

We New Englanders take our clam chowder seriously (if you couldn't tell). Up and down the New England coast throughout autumn, nearly every town has its own Chowder Festival. Throughout the six states, restaurants cook up pots of chowder from their best recipes and compete for the prize of being Best Clam Chowder. The granddaddy of all New England Chowder Festivals is held in Newport, Rhode Island, where dozens of area restaurants compete for the renown title.

It's a simple enough dish, but like gumbo in Louisiana and crab cakes in Maryland, every cook has their own special twist on the recipe. The basics are clams, potatoes, and milk. From then on out, it's every chef for himself.

There are endless varieties. Some swear that clam chowder without salt pork is just potage. Others claim that clam chowder can't be made without onion. Chefs nearly come to brawls over whether heavy cream should ever be used and why a butter and flour roux is a better base than clam liquor. Secret recipes abound. And everyone has their favorites.

My own personal favorite is the thick, creamy, eat-it-with-a-fork variety of clam chowder served at Legal Seafood and Au Bon Pain in Boston, MA. Rich and laden with bits of potato, meaty chunks of clam, onions, and garlic, it's a meal rather than an opener for one. Served with a slab of homemade bread slathered with butter, it's a bad health choice but will please your taste buds for hours.

While many chefs call for the Inquisition, others believe that fresh corn adds the perfect touch of crisp sweetness to the rich broth and pungent bits of clam meat. Corn isn't the only bone of contention when it comes to this regional specialty, however. Some purists insist that the only real ingredients in clam chowder are clams, water, milk, onions, potatoes, and butter. They argue whether chowder should be made with mussels or littlenecks (in Maine, it's littlenecks -- in Connecticut, mussels. Anywhere else, it varies), whether to add the clam bellies or just the necks, even whether clams should be steamed "virgin" or with garlic, wine, or even beer.

Whether you like your chowder thick or thin, with or without corn, flavored with salt pork or bacon or something even heavier, there is one thing on which all New Englanders agree -- clam chowder is white. We're not sure what it is that they serve in Atlanta or San Francisco- but it's not New England clam chowder.

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