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Corn Chowder (Can corn sliced onion cups)
1 can corn 1 sliced onion 4 cups potatoes, cut in 1/4-inch slices 4 cups scalded milk 8 common crackers 1 1/2-inch cube fat salt pork 3 tablespoons butter Salt and pepper Cut pork in small pieces and try out; add onion and cook five minutes, stirring often that onion may not burn; strain fat into a stewpan. Parboil potatoes five minutes in boiling water to cover; drain, and add potatoes to fat; then add two cups boiling water; cook until potatoes are soft, add corn and milk, then heat to boiling-point. Season with salt and pepper; add butter, and crackers split and soaked in enough cold milk to moisten. Remove crackers, turn chowder into a tureen, and put crackers on top.
A plain New England chowder built on rendered salt pork rather than stock, from the era when canned corn had just become a year-round staple. Two details do most of the work: the fat is strained clean before the potatoes go in, and the milk is never allowed to boil hard.
- Keep the milk below a boilDon't let the milk boil hard -- bring it just up to the boiling-point and no further. Milk held at a rolling boil with salt in it can curdle and will catch on the pan bottom, so bring it up gently.
- "Try out" the porkThis is rendering: cook the diced pork slowly over low heat until the fat runs and the pieces are golden. Rushing it over high heat scorches the outside and leaves the fat inside. A 1 1/2-inch cube is roughly 2 ounces.
- Straining the fatThe recipe leaves the pork scraps and cooked onion behind in the strainer, keeping only the flavoured fat. Many cooks today return the crisp pork bits at the end and keep the onion in; if you do, chop the onion fine so it disappears into the broth.
- A can of cornMost likely a No. 2 can in this period, about 20 ounces and roughly 2 1/2 cups with its liquid; the recipe does not say whether it is whole-kernel or cream-style. Two 15-ounce cans drained, or about 3 cups of fresh or frozen kernels, works; fresh corn wants only three or four minutes of heat.
- Common crackersVermont or Boston common crackers are thick, dry, and split in half like a biscuit — they hold shape after soaking. Oyster crackers or plain water biscuits are the nearest substitute; saltines will dissolve into paste, so scatter them dry over each bowl instead.
- Scalded milkScalding was partly a keeping measure in the days before reliable pasteurisation, and partly just a way of having the milk already hot when it met the rest of the pot. With modern milk it serves only to shorten the final heating; you can add it cold and warm the chowder slowly from that point.
- Potato slicesQuarter-inch rounds of a floury potato will begin to break down and thicken the chowder, which is the intended texture. Waxy potatoes hold their edges and give a thinner result.
- YieldAbout 2 1/2 quarts, enough for six to eight as a first course or four as a supper. It thickens considerably on standing and reheats well over low heat.