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Coney Island Clam Chowder
1 tablespoon chopped salt pork 1/2 cup sliced onion 1 doz. clams 1 cup cubed potato 1/2 cup cubed carrots 1/2 cup chopped celery 1 qt. water 1/2 cup tomato 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/16 teaspoon pepper 1/2 tablespoon shortening Brown salt pork and onions together, clean and pick over clams, reserving liquor; chop finely. Cook potatoes, carrots and celery in boiling salted water until almost done. Add clam liquor, salt pork and onions, clams and tomatoes. Season and stir in shortening just before serving. Serves six.
A tomato-based clam chowder of the Manhattan school, scaled for a single pot over a camp fire. The one thing to get right is the clams: they go in at the very end and need only a couple of minutes.
- Clams: what to buyA dozen means a dozen hard-shell clams — quahogs or large cherrystones — shucked raw, with the liquor caught in a bowl. Shucked chopped clams sold in tubs with their juice work equally well; use about 1 cup drained meat plus its liquid.
- Don't overcook themChopped raw clams are done in two to three minutes of gentle simmering. Held longer they tighten into rubber, and the recipe does add them only after the vegetables are almost cooked.
- Strain the liquorClam liquor almost always carries sand. Pour it through a fine sieve or a coffee filter before it goes into the pot, or the whole chowder will be gritty.
- 1/16 teaspoon pepperThat is a scant pinch, the sort of figure that tends to fall out of level-measurement recipe arithmetic. Season to taste at the end.
- ShorteningHere 'shortening' means lard or a solid vegetable fat. A tablespoon of butter stirred in off the heat does the same job of rounding the broth.
- TomatoHalf a cup of chopped fresh tomato, or the same quantity of canned tomatoes with their juice. Canned gives more body and is more reliable outdoors.
- Salt porkOne tablespoon is a very small amount of fat to brown half a cup of onion in. Render it slowly in the dry pot and add a little of the shortening early if the pan looks dry; bacon is an acceptable substitute.
- Yield and saltA quart of water for six makes a thin, broth-style chowder — a first course rather than a meal. Salt the vegetable water lightly, since the pork and clam liquor both bring salt of their own.