Ish Chowder
Fry three or four pieces of salt pork in a deep kettle; when crisp, remove and put into kettle a layer of sliced potatoes, then one of fish, until all is used. Add two onions cut fine, pour in boiling water enough to cover all; boil half hour, add half a pint of milk and cook five minutes longer. Season as desired. The best fish for chowder is haddock.
A plain New England fish chowder, printed here under what is almost certainly a typesetter's slip for "Fish Chowder." The method is sound, but the timing is written for a single pot and needs unpicking.
- The half-hour boilSliced potatoes will be tender well before thirty minutes; haddock fillets need only eight to ten. Layer and boil the potatoes and onion first, then slide the fish in for the last stretch so it poaches rather than shreds into threads.
- Never let it boil after the milk goes inA rolling boil once the dairy is added will curdle it and toughen the fish. Bring it only to a bare shiver for the final five minutes.
- Half a pint of milkOne cup. For a richer chowder, use half milk and half cream, or scald the milk separately before adding so the pot temperature does not drop.
- Salt pork'Three or four pieces' is unspecified; slices about a quarter-inch thick, perhaps 4 oz in total, will do. Thick-cut bacon works, though it brings smoke the original did not have. The rendered fat stays in the kettle and is the backbone of the flavor.
- Enough boiling water to coverThe amount depends on your kettle. Aim to cover the layers by about half an inch, roughly 3-4 cups; more than that gives you fish soup rather than chowder.
- HaddockStill the right choice, and cod, pollock or hake all behave the same way. Use skinless fillets cut into two-inch pieces; about 1 1/2 lb suits the quantities here.
- Season as desiredSalt cautiously, since the pork has already salted the broth. Black pepper and a bay leaf are traditional; thyme is not out of place.
- Yield and servingServes four as a main course. Scatter the reserved pork cracklings over the top, and serve with common crackers or oyster crackers, as chowder was commonly served in New England.
Chowder in American cookbooks descends from the fishing communities of the North Atlantic coast, and the name is generally traced to the French chaudière, the cauldron in which a shore cook combined the day's catch with pork, biscuit and onions. The layered construction here is the older form: fat rendered first, then alternating strata of potato and fish rather than a stirred pot. This version reflects the milk-based New England style. The same recipe with hardtack in place of potatoes would have been recognizable to a fisherman a century earlier.