MARITIME 



MORSELS 



Clam Chowder - 



A Spoonful of History 



"But when that smoking chowder came in. ... 

 Oh! sweet friends, hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, 

 scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuits, 

 and salted pork cut up into little flakes! The whole enriched with butter, 



and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. 

 Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, 

 Queegueg seeing his favorite fishing food before him, and the chowder 

 being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition. " 



— Moby Dick, Herman Melville 



By Kathy Hart 



Whether in fiction or reality, a 

 steaming bowl of clam chowder is a 

 satisfying way to quell your hunger on a 

 chilly day. 



Along the North Carolina coast, 

 clam chowder is a water-based mixture 

 of clams, potatoes and onions flavored 

 with salt pork. To make the chowder 

 even more hearty, native coastal cooks 

 often rim the chowder pot with corn- 

 meal dumplings. 



The word "chowder" is derived 

 from the French word chaudiere, 

 meaning large caldron. Food historians 

 believe that French fishers often 

 contributed their catch to large commu- 

 nity chaudieres for all to eat. 



Most chowders contain fish or 

 shellfish, with clam chowder being the 

 most well-known. But the term "chow- 

 der" can be applied to any thick, rich 

 soup containing chunks of food (for 

 example, corn chowder). 



By the mid- 18th century, the British 

 were concocting chowders. The thick 

 seafood stew had become a mainstay 

 for shipboard meals, and it's thought 

 that sailors introduced chowder to the 

 people of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia 

 and New England. 



But maybe not. 



Native Americans also cooked 

 seafood-based soups. John Bartram 

 described this chowderlike dish served 

 at an Iroquoian feast in 1743: "This 

 repast consisted of ... Indian corn soup, 

 or thin hominy, with dry'd eels and other 

 fish boiled in it." 



It's likely that seafood chowders 

 were ubiquitous to coastal areas world- 

 wide, and it matters not who originated 

 them — only that they persisted so that 

 we can enjoy the rich soups today. 



In its earliest use in America, 

 chowder was made of fish, onions, 

 ground biscuits and water. The first 

 recipe for chowder, flavored with spices, 

 herbs and wine, appeared in rhyme in 



20 AUTUMN 1997 



