Home › Chowders › French Fisherman's Chowder
French Fisherman's Chowder
Put 1/4 of a cup of butter or good clarified dripping in a stewpan, and when melted add 3 ounces of sifted flour and stir until smooth and bubbling; then cool and add a quart of stock or water, cut the meat carefully from a flounder or other fish of firm flesh, and put the bones and trimmings in the soup with a bay leaf, 2 cloves, a teaspoonful of essence of anchovy, or some well-seasoned table sauce; a little cayenne, a teaspoonful of sugar, and 3 teaspoonfuls of salt; unless you use salted soup stock. Let it boil rapidly for ten minutes; skim, if any fat arises. Cut the fish into neat pieces and lay in a stewpan with a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley and half as much white potato, sliced thick, as you have fish. Strain the stock over this and add a pint of warm milk, and a little cream if you have it on hand. Let it cook slowly until the potatoes are just tender, but keep their shape. Oyster liquor or clam broth may be used instead of the stock or water. In that case add the hot milk at the very last, when the potatoes are done, and boil up once, and serve.
A roux-thickened fish chowder in the French manner rather than the New England one, built on a fish-bone stock made from the trimmings of the fillets. Two things need attention: the flour is measured by weight, and the fish quantity is never stated.
- How much fishThe recipe gives no weight, only that the potato should be half the volume of the fish. For a quart of stock and a pint of milk, 1 1/2 to 2 lb of flounder fillets with 3/4 to 1 lb of potatoes gives sensible proportions.
- 3 ounces of flourThat is weight, roughly 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour, cooked into 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) of butter. It makes a fairly heavy roux; the chowder will be thick enough to coat a spoon once the milk goes in.
- "Cool and add"Letting the roux drop below a simmer before the liquid goes in is the anti-lump instruction, not an idle one. Add the stock a little at a time at first, whisking, then the rest.
- Essence of anchovyA Victorian bottled anchovy extract, now gone from most shelves. Two or three anchovy fillets mashed to a paste, or a teaspoon of Worcestershire, stands in for it; both carry salt, so hold back on the 3 teaspoons until you taste.
- SaltThree teaspoons is calibrated for unsalted homemade stock. With commercial fish or chicken stock, start with one and adjust at the end.
- The ten-minute boilThe recipe takes what it wants from the bones in ten minutes of hard boiling; fish stocks are generally made short, and longer cooking is often said to turn them bitter. Strain and discard the bones.
- Cooking the fishThe fillets go into the pot raw and cook only as long as the potatoes take, which is the right order. Keep it at a bare simmer once the milk is in so the pieces stay whole and the dairy does not break.
- The clam-broth versionIf you use oyster liquor or clam broth in place of stock, the instruction to add the milk last matters: these salty shellfish liquors are more apt to curdle milk that is held over heat. Bring it up once and take it off.
- YieldRoughly two and a half to three quarts on the quantities suggested above, serving about six as a main course.