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Corn Chowder
2 OUNCES LARDING PORK, DICED I ONION, SLICED 2 CUPS BOILING WATER 11/2 CUPS POTATOES, SLICED I CUP MILK I TEASPOON SUGAR 2 CUPS FRESH CORN PULP OR I CAN CREAM CORN 1/2 TEASPOON SALT 1/4 TEASPOON GROUND PEPPER I ROUNDING TABLE- SPOON BUTTER Fry pork crisp, add onion, stir and cook until softened and lightly browned; add boiling water, potatoes and seasonings. Cook until potatoes are soft, add corn and milk. Cook 10 minutes, add butter in small pieces and serve.
A plain New England-style chowder built on the standard sequence: render pork, sweat onion, boil potatoes, finish with dairy. The only real risk is the last stage.
- Larding porkThis is salt pork or fatback, sold as a slab of firm belly fat, not the loin cut called "pork" today. Two ounces is a piece about the size of a matchbox; thick-cut unsmoked bacon is the closest supermarket substitute, though it brings smoke the original did not have.
- Corn pulpFresh corn pulp means the kernels split down the row with a knife tip and the cob then scraped hard with the back of the blade, so you get the milky starch as well as the flesh. That starch is what thickens the chowder. Roughly three to five ears, depending on size, will give the two cups called for.
- If using canned cornCanned cream-style corn is already sweetened and thickened, so skip the teaspoon of sugar and expect a heavier body. One standard can is about 15 ounces, slightly under the two cups of fresh pulp.
- Keep it below a boilOnce the milk goes in, hold the pot at a bare tremble. A hard boil after the dairy is added can cause the milk to curdle, and no amount of stirring brings it back.
- PotatoesA cup and a half sliced is roughly two medium potatoes. Waxy varieties hold their shape; a floury russet will break down and thicken the broth, which some cooks prefer in a chowder.
- Butter at the endAdded in small pieces at the last moment, this is a finishing enrichment rather than cooking fat. Serve promptly.
- YieldAbout six cups, or four modest bowls as a first course, two or three as a supper with bread.
Corn chowder is the inland, thrifty cousin of the clam chowders: same salt pork, same onion, same potatoes and milk, with corn standing in for shellfish. The word chowder is generally traced to the French chaudière, the cauldron a fishing crew cooked in, and the dish kept that one-pot logic long after it moved off the boats.