As we did in 2021 and 2023, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. This go round, we're talking to Trina about her "Diet Clam Chowder in the Kitchen." Trina?
Trina: Robert S. Cox and Jacob Walker's A HISTORY OF CHOWDER: FOUR CENTURIES OF A NEW ENGLAND MEAL came out in 2011 and the authors provide a history of chowder and how it has changed over the years. Despite claims that it came from the French, this doesn't appear to match the historical record. It's a food that may have been taken from the Americas by early European travelers because, in its original form, it was easy to make on ships -- you could use shark for the meat, for example.
Though it's now clam chowder, it didn't start out that way originally.
Trina: No, the authors explain that while Native Americans ate clams and oysters, the European settlers might eat oysters but saw clams as beneath them. Early chowders used a fish of some kind such as cod -- no clams. The canning methods of the early 1800s helped popularize the use of clams in chowders and other dishes.
And "sea biscuits."
Trina: Right. You'd use grease, some form of fish, water and sea biscuits which are made from salt, water and stone ground flour. Those ingredients would be mixed into a dough and then put in a hot oven to cook for a half hour before being removed and left out to harden. Think of them as thicker crackers.
And as chowder became popular in New England other ingredients were added.
Trina: Yes, from the 1700s forward, New Englanders added to the ingredients. Potatoes were the most popular and lasting ingredient after clams themselves. It's hard for us today to imagine a chowder without potatoes but it was not an original ingredient. It took about a half a century of chowder in this country before people began adding potatoes to it.
Hard to imagine. And it's hard to imagine it not having clams.
Trina: Due to clams being so available in the area, they were eventually used, most likely by poorer people. Clam chowder is, of course, delicious and it quickly became a requirement for most chowders. By the way, early Europeans who settled in New England also looked down on lobsters and considered this "Satan fish" to be fit only for pigs to eat.
And there is today Manhattan Clam Chowder and New England Clam Chowder.
Trina: Right. Among the ingredients experimented with were tomatoes. Many communities closer to New York loved the tomato as a base and that's how you end up with today's Manhattan Clam Chowder. The white New England Clam Chowder has a thicker base and no tomatoes.
You really enjoyed the book.
Trina: I did. It's a great read and I recommend it strongly.
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Previous book discussions:
"Books (Ruth, Jim, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Stan, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Dona, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Ty, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Mike, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Stan, Rebecca, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Mike, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Ann, Marcia, Trina, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Elaine, Ava and C.I.)"
"Books (Marcia, Rebecca, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Kat, Ava and C.I.)"
