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Fish Chowder (Best fish for chowder)
The best fish for chowder are perfectly fresh haddock, although cod are very good, cut in pieces two inches wide crosswise of fish and skin. Fry four slices of salt pork crisp. Remove the pork leaving the fat; put in the pot a layer of fish, a layer of sliced potatoes, also a layer of onions, pepper, and salt to season, a little sifted flour, then another layer of fish, potatoes, onions and more seasoning; cover with hotwater and stew slowly until the fish is nearly done; then put in a half dozen split crackers, with a pint of hot milk; cook another fourteen minutes. If onions are large, one is enough; potatoes, five medium size.
A layered New England chowder that assembles rather than simmers: the fish goes in raw between potatoes and onions, and the milk arrives only at the end. The recipe assumes you know the pot and the proportions, so a few numbers help.
- The hinge: add the milk last, and keep it below a boilThe pint of hot milk goes in with the crackers for the final fourteen minutes only. Hard boiling from that point risks curdling the milk, so hold it at a bare simmer.
- Quantities the recipe leaves openFigure 2 to 2 1/2 lb of haddock or cod, five medium potatoes and one large onion as stated, and enough hot water to just cover the layers. This makes 4 to 6 servings.
- Salt porkFour slices means about 4 oz of fatty salt pork, diced or sliced thin and rendered until the scraps are crisp. Thick-cut unsmoked bacon is the nearest supermarket substitute, though it brings smoke the original does not have. The recipe removes the pork and does not say what becomes of it.
- "A little sifted flour"A dusting between the layers, perhaps a tablespoon in total, sifted so it does not clump. It thickens the broth slightly; it is not a roux, and too much makes the chowder pasty.
- Split crackersThese are Boston common crackers or pilot biscuit — dry, hard, unsalted rounds split through the middle. Oyster crackers or a plain water biscuit stand in; saltines dissolve too fast and oversalt the pot.
- Fish timingTwo-inch pieces of haddock cook through in about 8 to 10 minutes at a bare simmer once the potatoes are tender. "Nearly done" is the point to stop; the last fourteen minutes with the milk will finish it. Stir as little as possible or the fish shreds.
- Skin on, bones outSkin and bones -- The phrase 'crosswise of fish and skin' assumes a whole gutted haddock, though it is unclear whether the skin is to be left on or taken off; skin-on pieces hold together better. Pin bones should come out first.
- SeasoningSalt cautiously between the layers, since the pork fat carries salt of its own, and make the final adjustment after the milk goes in.
Chowder in New England is older than the cookbooks that record it, and the layered method here — pork fat, then alternating strata of fish, potato and onion, moistened and left alone — is the form the dish held through the nineteenth century, long before anyone thought to call the result a cream soup. The name is generally traced to the French chaudière, the cauldron of the fishing coasts, though the derivation is traditional rather than settled. What dates this version is the cracker: common crackers were a pantry staple in New England households, and here they are split into the pot. The recipe calls for haddock rather than cod.