Cooking For Engineers Forum Index Cooking For Engineers
Analytical cooking discussed.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Recipe File: Clam Chowder, New England Style
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Cooking For Engineers Forum Index -> Comments Forum
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Cooking For Engineers



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 16776765

PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 6:28 pm    Post subject: Recipe File: Clam Chowder, New England Style Reply with quote


Article Digest:
Ordering New England Style Clam Chowder at a restaurant is an irresistible temptation for me. I always have to try it because everyone makes it a little different. My most common complaint is the lack of clams in many restaurant clam chowders, so I prepare my own whenever I have some extra cream on hand. My recipe balances the generous portion of clams with a satisfying amount of potatoes and clam juice to provide a briny flavor to this cream-based chowder. Steamed fresh clams can replace the canned clams if you have time or want to bring this recipe to the next level.

There are countless varieties of clam chowder - the most popular of which are called New England Style and Manhattan Style. Technically, Manhattan is in New England and Manhattan style is popular throughout the southern New England region. In any case, the label New England Style now means that the chowder has a cream or dairy base while Manhattan Style refers to a tomato base. The a brief Google search reveals that the terms Maine style (heavy cream), Rhode Island style (light cream / soupy), Oregon style (extremely thick), Yorktown style (containing beer or ale), and Southern style (more vegetables and spices with some Worcestershire sauce) are also used - but I have yet to see them served in a restaurant. Of course, some restaurants' New England Style clam chowders seem to fit the description of Oregon or Rhode Island style.

Classic New England Style Clam Chowder begins with salt pork, but since I live in California, I've started with the West Coast classic: bacon (this time in the form of bacon grease). But first, let's take a look at what other ingredients we'll need.

Begin with one pound of diced russet potatoes (about one large potato) and 1/2 cup onion (about 1/2 medium onion). You'll also need a tablespoon of all-purpose flour and two tablespoons of bacon grease.
[IMG]

Drain the clams from two 10-ounce cans of clams (preferably canned in water, salt water, or broth - not oil). After draining, both cans should yield about a total of 10 ounces of clam meat. Also, prepare 8 ounces of clam juice. The flavor is better if you use bottled clam juice instead of the liquid the clams are packaged in, but if clam juice is unavailable, reserve 8 ounces of the liquid from the cans.
[IMG]

Heat two tablespoons of bacon grease and saute the onions in the hot grease until translucent, but not browned. Bacon grease can be collected and stored after you cook bacon. If you don't have any bacon grease in your refrigerator, go ahead and cook about four slices of bacon in the pan and remove the bacon and any excess bacon grease (remember to store it for future use) before sauteing the onions.
[IMG]

Add the diced potatoes and saute until all the potato has been coated by the fat. Throw in the tablespoon of flour and saute until the potatoes and onions have been coated.
[IMG]

Pour in the cup of clam juice and bring to a boil while stirring. Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat so it just simmers with the lid on. Cook with the lid on for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
[IMG]

Prepare a mixture of one cup whole milk and one cup heavy cream. Half-and-half will also work as long as it's on the creamier side - if not, augmentation with some heavy cream may be necessary. The amount of fat is important for the texture of the chowder. Using only milk will result in a slightly thickened (due to the potato starch) watery consistency. Using only heavy cream will result in a really smooth, but much too rich chowder. The milk and cream mixture results in a cream fat concentration around 20%, producing what I think is the perfect consistency when served hot or warm. Using combinations of milk and cream to achieve this fat ratio helps us get to our desired consistency target. For example, some light whipping cream (about 18-30% fat content) has a fat content as low as 18%, so using straight light whipping cream of this type will provide us the desired amount of fat.
[IMG]

Once the potato, onion, and clam juice mixture has simmered for 20 minutes, stir to redistribute the solids.
[IMG]

Add the drained clams, milk, and cream.
[IMG]

Stir and heat through until hot, but not boiling. (Boiling may cause some of the milks solids to clump - but with 20% fat concentration this is less of a problem than if we were using straight milk. At around 30% or more fat, there is enough fat to prevent the clumping of the milk solids even while boiling.) While heating, this is right time to season with salt and pepper. Add salt a pinch at a time, stir, and taste. Repeat until you get the desired saltiness. It is important not to forget to add the salt and pepper - even though we have a lot of flavors in the chowder at this point, they will be muted without adding enough salt.
[IMG]

Serve while hot. I like garnishing with a bit of fresh chopped parsley and some bacon pieces.

[IMG]

New England Style Clam Chowder
2 Tbs. bacon greasesaute 1 min.saute 1 min.stir insimmer covered 20 min.heat through without boilingseason to taste
1/2 cup (80 g) chopped onion
1 lb. (450 g) russet potatoespeel and dice
1 Tbs. (8 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (235 mL) clam juice
1 cup (235 mL) whole milk
1 cup (235 mL) heavy cream
2 10-oz. (283 g) cans whole clams
Salt and pepper

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Guest






PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Manhattan is NOT part of New England...many New Yorkers would be upset by that characterization (to say nothing of New Englanders...)!
Back to top
SmartGuy
Guest





PostPosted: Fri May 27, 2005 7:25 pm    Post subject: Manhattan Reply with quote

Manhattan IS part of New England. New York east of the Hudson is considered New Egland. Not state lines. BTW, recipe looks great. Will give it a try.
Back to top
Guest






PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2005 2:22 am    Post subject: Manhattan != NE Reply with quote

Sorry, but I've never heard of "east of Hudson = New England, and I grew up in NY state, east of the Hudson. New England is the region of the US east of New York.
Back to top
Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2005 3:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmmm... it seems that most sources consider Manhattan/New York City as not part of New England. I'm going to make a modification to my article.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
utter_desolation
Guest





PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2005 1:58 pm    Post subject: Roux first, then the rest! Reply with quote

No, no no no no! you always begin with the roux, then the cream, then add the additional ingredients! This is a common mistake found in cooking books all over the place. Try doing it this way:
  1. Do all the prep and set it aside
  2. Heat up the roux in the pot you're going to cook the soup in
  3. Add the desired dairy, and/or water
  4. add the prepared ingredients
  5. add the spices
Back to top
Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2005 6:49 pm    Post subject: Roux first? Reply with quote

Well, the roux first method does work well, but I can't taste the difference in clam chowder (as opposed to, let's say, gumbo where the roux reaches a brick color). Not producing real roux makes this recipe easy to do in one pot. In the roux first method, the potatoes can't easily be cooked in the bechamel without causing the dairy to clump - too much heat for too long. So, you cook the potatoes separate. But then what you end up with is:

1. Precook potatoes in water, drain.
2. Lightly saute onions in grease, remove from pot.
3. Add flour to grease to form roux, cook.
4. Add cream/milk and clam juice and bring to simmer
5. Add precooked potatoes, onions, and clams
6. Heat through, season, serve.

Simple enough, but cooking the potatoes and onions separate is just an unnecessary step and uses multiple pots (unless you are cooking the chowder in your potato boiling pot -- which means an extra rinsing step and you'll be using a much larger pot for the chowder).

However, it should be mentioned that if you are using pure heavy cream, you can probably cook the potatoes in that without worrying about curds forming because of the higher fat content. The only problem I have with that, is that it's a bit too rich for me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
BenFrantzDale
Guest





PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2005 9:19 pm    Post subject: New England Reply with quote

For what it's worth, the Wikipedia article on New England mentions that the "East of the Hudson" distinction is antiquated and/or rarely used.
Back to top
Aileen



Joined: 13 May 2005
Posts: 12
Location: Tustin, CA

PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My family LOVES New England Clam Chowder! If we are out to dinner on a Friday night, that's the one thing we will all agree on ordering! The "ideal" is a soup that's thick enough, but not too thick...Your recipe sounds easy enough to want to try. I agree, ease of preparation is key, especially when busy enough with work, school, and kid chauffeuring hither and yon. :?

Too busy with the kid's basketball tournament in LA this weekend, but I will definitely give this recipe a try soon!

Thanks, Michael! Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
BlackGriffen
Guest





PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2005 9:43 pm    Post subject: Sweat vs. Saute Reply with quote

When you don't want the onions and whatnot to brown aren't you dealing with a sweat and not a saute?

BG
Back to top
crcarlson
Guest





PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 1:30 am    Post subject: Serving size Reply with quote

Hi Michael,

I really enjoy the site, thanks for taking the time to share.

Have you considered putting the approximate number of servings on your recipes? I am having a tough time figureing out how many people could be served with one batch of chowda.

-Chris.
Back to top
Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BlackGriffen wrote:
When you don't want the onions and whatnot to brown aren't you dealing with a sweat and not a saute?

Yes and no. A sweat is always performed over low heat with the intention of cooking the substance in their own juices (that will flow out and collect as they heat). Often, you'll press foil down onto the ingredients to help retain the moisture as they heat. Sometimes, the term sweat is used loosely for whenever you wish to heat aromatics without browning, but in reality - it's often just a quick saute that's performed. Generally, I consider that if juices collect, then it's sweating - if it's still relatively dry, you're sauteing.

In this recipe, we're cooking the onions just a bit to soften them up for their soak in the clam juice where they will liquify. We're not actually trying to sweat them out in this recipe.

crcarlson wrote:
Have you considered putting the approximate number of servings on your recipes? I am having a tough time figureing out how many people could be served with one batch of chowda.

Sorry, I forgot! I've added the servings for this dish: serves 6.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Sarah
Guest





PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:05 am    Post subject: Roux first theory Reply with quote

It seems to me that cooking the roux with the potatoes is equivalent to the "roux first" method, because the purpose of cooking the roux first is met, namely, you are incorporating the flour with the fat first, before liquids are added. If you toss the potatoes coated with flour around in butter or bacon grease, you also cook the flour to some degree. (Cooking it longer in this state "toasts" the flour and should give a browner roux.)

When the liquid is finally added, the sauce will not be lumpy or taste like raw flour. For some reason, if you can actually get the flour to mix directly with a water-based liquid, it still never really toasts up and tastes right.

The important criteria that are behind the "roux first" rule are met, as long as the potatoes aren't too watery, so I would vote to keep the recipe as it stands.
Back to top
webmaster
Guest





PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:01 am    Post subject: Great recipes! Reply with quote

I am getting so hungry by reading all this recipes.
Back to top
Guest






PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really like the chart that yo have at the end as a summary for the recipe. Will you always do this when you present a recipe?
Back to top
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Cooking For Engineers Forum Index -> Comments Forum All times are GMT
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next
Page 1 of 10

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You can reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You can delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group