Name: New England Clam Chowder
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 12 quahogs or other large clams; Freshly ground black pepper to taste (optional); 1 to 1½ quarts/1 to 1.5 liters cold milk, or as needed; 4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into medium dice; 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream; ½ cup/120 milliliters water; 8 ounces/240 grams salt pork, salted pork belly, or bacon, diced small or pureed in a food processor, or ground; 1 Spanish onion, cut into medium dice; ½ cup/60 grams all-purpose flour; 1 bunch thyme

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

From Scratch

By Michael Ruhlman

Published 2019

About

If there’s a better soup to serve on a cold November night, I don’t know what it is. This centuries-old dish was born on the New England coast, where clams are abundant. Like many traditional dishes, it’s named for the vessel it was cooked in, a chaudière, a cauldron-shaped pot that could be suspended above a fire. Its ingredients are, also, true to traditional regional dishes, simple, abundant, and inexpensive: salt pork, potatoes, clams, and milk. I like to serve it with oyster cra