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Boston Fish Chowder
Catch a young cod or haddock weighing around 3 pounds. Skin and fillet him, saving head and bones. Cut fillets into 2-inch pieces. Cover bones and head with cold water, bring slowly to boiling point, and simmer 1/2 hour. Strain broth. Dice 1/4 pound (or less) salt pork, and fry very slowly; after sufficient fat is extracted, add 1 sliced onion and continue to fry slowly until onion is tender without browning. Add fish broth, cut-up fish, and 1 quart sliced potatoes that have been parboiled 5 minutes and drained. Add sufficient boiling water to cover, season with salt and pepper, and simmer until potatoes are done. Add 3 cups scalded milk, lay split and buttered crackers in bottom of soup bowls and pour chowder over. Dot with butter and go to it.
Fish chowder may be made in as small a quantity as desired, following this same procedure. It is a grand dish for a crowd, however, and like any other stew, always tastes better if there is a lot of it.
A classic New England fish chowder built the old way: stock from the frame first, salt pork for fat, potatoes and milk last. Nothing here needs correcting, but a few of the quantities and vessels are worth pinning down.
- Do not let it boil after the milk goes inOnce the 3 cups of scalded milk are added, hold the pot below a simmer; boiling can curdle the milk and break the fish into threads. Some cooks make the chowder up to that point, let it stand off the heat an hour, and add the milk when reheating gently.
- Buying the fishA whole 3-lb cod or haddock yields roughly 1 to 1 1/4 lb of skinless fillet. If you buy fillets, ask the counter for a pound of frames or heads as well; without them there is no broth, and bottled clam juice thinned with water is a common substitute.
- Broth timingThe recipe's half hour is about the outer limit for a fish frame; twenty to twenty-five minutes at a bare simmer is often preferred, as longer extraction can turn the stock bitter or gluey. Skim the grey foam as it rises and never let it roll.
- A quart of sliced potatoesThat is a volume measure, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb of peeled potatoes, roughly three medium. Waxy or all-purpose potatoes hold their slices; russets will dissolve into the broth, which some cooks want and others do not.
- Salt porkSalt pork is fresh pork belly cured in salt only, not smoked. It is sold in slabs near the bacon in many markets. Unsmoked pancetta is the closest common stand-in; bacon works but pushes the chowder toward smoke, which is not the Boston style.
- Fish pieces and cooking timeTwo-inch chunks of cod need only 5 to 8 minutes, and the parboiled potatoes should be tender in roughly 10, so the fish may be ready a little ahead of them; check early. Stir as little as possible or the fish will shred.
- The crackersThe original means hard common crackers or ship's biscuit, split through the middle like an English muffin and buttered. Unsalted saltines or oyster crackers are the practical replacement; put them in the bowl, not the pot, so they do not thicken the whole thing.
- YieldAs written this serves about 4 to 6 as a main course. Chowder reheats well if taken gently, and is often said to be better the second day.