In 1939, a Maine legislator proposed a bill that would have banned tomatoes in clam chowder. While it never became an actual law, the failed bill highlighted what many New Englanders have felt for years: Don’t mess with clam chowder. Even today, 87 years later, the question of whether your chowder should be creamy, clear, or red divides friends and families at restaurants throughout the Northeast.
Ironically, the first chowder wasn’t any of those.
It is thought that the word chowder originates from the French word chaudière, which means large cooking pot or cauldron. French fishermen from Brittany cooked simple one-pot meals onboard their vessels, tossing whatever seafood or other ingredients were available that day into a communal kettle to make that night’s meal. The dish became known by the name of the pot, and eventually the recipe along with the term traveled across the Atlantic to New England.
The first printed recipe for chowder that we know of was published in the Boston Evening Post on Sept. 23, 1751. But it wasn’t clam chowder. It was just Chouder – and it bore little resemblance to the bowls we enjoy today. Fish, salt pork, onions and herbs were layered in a kettle with hard biscuits, red wine and water. No potatoes. No cream. Not even a clam.
Along with New England’s expanding coastal settlements, chowder evolved. Chowders slowly went from containing fish to being made with clams. Other ingredients like potatoes were also added. In the mid-1800s, cooks started adding milk and cream to the broth, creating thick white chowder, which became known as the New England style. By the late 18th century creamy clam chowder could be found on menus in Boston restaurants such as Union Oyster House (the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States). From there New England clam chowder traveled far from home and became the version most commonly known throughout the United States.
Rhode Island just over the state border decided to go another way. Cooks left out the dairy addition and kept the broth clear to showcase the fresh taste of the clams. Clear chowder became Rhode Island’s signature style and is the preferred choice in Rhode Island restaurants today. It’s also served in many restaurants in southeastern Connecticut and parts of eastern Massachusetts. When you live where both traditions thrive you can have Rhode Island-style clear broth one day and creamy New England chowder the next.
And then we have Manhattan clam chowder. Though it technically hails from New York, food historians widely suspect its tomato-based recipe came from Portuguese fishing villages with historical connections to Rhode Island before making its way west. Even if it didn’t originate in Rhode Island, the possibility muddies the water of this age-old chowder feud further and highlights how closely linked the Northeastern coastal cuisines of New England and New York have always been.
We’re fortunate here in southeastern Connecticut. Within driving distance of each other, you can find all three of New England’s celebrated clam chowder styles on restaurant menus. Few areas of America can claim to be at the epicenter of this tasty dispute, making our corner of New England one of the best places to sample all the contenders and judge for yourself which bowl belongs on your dinner table.
From the Archives: America’s First “Chouder” (1751)
“First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from Burning…
Then lay some Fish cut crossways very nice…
Last Bottle of Claret, with Water eno’ to smother ’em…”
The recipe continues for several more verses, but one thing is clear: America’s first printed chowder looked very different from the creamy bowls that have become known as New England clam chowder.
