50 Chowders: One Pot Meals - Clam, Corn, & Beyond
by Jasper White
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jasper WhiteEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-08-22
ISBN: 0684850346
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Scribner
Book Reviews of 50 Chowders: One Pot Meals - Clam, Corn, & Beyond
Book Review: Best in Class among Soup, Stew, and Chowder Books. Buy It
Summary: 5 Stars
'50 Chowders' by noted New England chef and writer, Jasper White may not be among my top five favorite cookbooks, but it is certainly on my list of 25 cookbooks which must be on a shelf in my kitchen. My experience with making the recipes in this book is so good, I will waive any complaint about getting only 50 chowder recipes for a list price of $30, at least twice the cost per recipe from a `name' cookbook author.
The charm of this book extends far beyond its recipes, as it inherits an interest for the reader from its subject. Chowders easily rank as one of the great New World dishes, along with barbecue, chili and ceviche. As the author points out at the beginning of the book, a chowder is not a soup, even though it shares many similarities to some famous soups such as minestrones and bouillabaisse in being thick and being based on seafood. But, a chowder is neither a soup nor a stew, yet an exact definition is almost impossible. The meaning of `chowder', like the meaning of the word `games' is so slippery that almost every definition you can imagine may slip through your hands with a valid counterexample. This is where the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein introduced the notion of family resemblance. Each chowder example shares several similarities to a related soup which is also a chowder, but it also exhibits differences from some chowders as well as differences from non-chowder soups and stews.
Virtually the only essential ingredient seems to me to be salt pork. The next most important ingredient is a starch from potato, biscuit, or corn. The third most definitive ingredient is probably a seafood (shell or fin) protein. Even this third element is not essential, as this book contains some chowders where the protein critter source has never willingly stuck its feet or wing into water.
The first chapter in this book provides a really excellent set of recipes for nine (9) different stocks, including six (6) for fish stocks. These nine are in addition to the fifty chowder recipes proper and include a strong fish stock, a traditional fish stock, clam and mussel broths, lobster stock, crab stock, chicken stock, chicken broth, and beef stock or broth. The only thing I miss here is a corn broth, although White's recipes do use cleaned corncobs to add corny flavor to chicken stocks used in the corn chowders.
The last chapter provides ten (10) recipes for `Chowder Companions', dishes commonly eaten with chowder. The only thing I would expect on this list that I miss is a recipe for crackers. But, we get lots of good quickbread recipes for garlic toast, buttermilk biscuits, cheddar cheese biscuits, Parker House rolls, anadama bread, corn bread, corn sticks, corn fritters, clam fritters, and salt cod fritters. White is true to his New England roots, as his biscuit recipe comes from Vermont native, Christopher Kimball rather than from a cook with a Southern accent such as Shirley Corriher or Edna Lewis. These ten recipes also do not count toward the fifty chowder recipes.
Between these two `extras' there are four chapters with the fifty recipes for fish, clam, other shellfish, and `farmhouse' chowders. The scant fifty recipes suddenly becomes more like 150 when we realize that each chowder recipe is augmented with one or more variations to the basic recipe. And, each basic recipe is presented in such a way that if one central ingredient is not available, another can be substituted with virtually no loss of quality. In the recipe for New England Fish Chowder, for example, the author points out that either cod or haddock will do well as the primary fishy protein, with haddock being just a little firmer and less likely to flake, giving larger chunks of fish in the finished soup.
I personally find the instructions for these recipes to be about as carefully written as you can imagine. This means that the procedures seem a bit long, but they are not difficult. Recall that chowders were created to be made on fishing boats with the most basic ingredients you can possibly imagine, by cooks which never saw the inside of a cooking school, long before the birth of either August Escoffier or even Antonin Careme. These were ship's cooks who needed homespun techniques to coax a good taste out of extremely simple ingredients. But, these recipes are not historical reconstructions as you may find in the writings of White's great friend and fellow chowder scholar, John Thorne. I sense that almost all of these recipes started as someone's traditional meal, but chef White has gilded each one to take advantage of fresh herbs and vegetables. And yet, I can find practically no other ingredient beyond the basic salt pork, potatoes, dairy product, basic protein, and basic vegetables such as leeks, corn, tomatoes, and celery. The book also goes out of its way to spell out in advance all he special cooking tools you will need to make each main recipe.
The very best thing I can say about the book as a whole is that it is equally pleasant to simply read it as it is to cook from it and taste it's excellent dishes.
Very highly recommended.
Summary of 50 Chowders: One Pot Meals - Clam, Corn, & Beyond
When most of us think of chowder, New England-style fish or clam chowder is what comes to mind, but they are only two of the dozens of home-style chowders you can make from this book. Once you discover the diversity of ingredients you can cook into a chowder and see the scope of styles and colors open to you, you will wonder how we ever came to think there were only one or two chowders in the world.Authentic chowder is characterized by generous chunks of local seasonal ingredients served in a moderate amount of broth. Another basic characteristic of chowder is its ease of preparation -- even chowders that take more than an hour to make don't require anything more than keeping an eye on the pot. A big pot of chowder is perfect for a large gathering of family and friends, and because chowder truly is best when made ahead, you'll have plenty of time to enjoy your company.
50 Chowders is the first hardcover cookbook to explore the many interpretations of chowders. On the familiar side, you will find a recipe for Corn Chowder explained with the kind of detail that ensures a sweet, mellow broth, succulent chunks of potatoes, and fresh golden kernels of corn. On the exotic side, there is a recipe for San Francisco Crab "Meatball" Chowder, an exciting dish whose deep and robust flavors make it really quite special. Here are a few of the more than fifty other chowders you will find: Shaker Fresh Cranberry Bean Chowder, Nova Scotia Lobster Chowder, Nantucket Veal Chowder, Pacific Northwest Salmon Chowder, and nine different clam chowders.
Among this book's unique features: A chapter of chowder companion dishes, from Parker House Rolls to Buttermilk Biscuits; more than fifty illustrations of important cooking techniques and chowder ingredients; cook's notes for each recipe, giving possible substitutions, required equipment, and serving suggestions; a list of reliable mail-order suppliers of seafood and other chowder ingredients.
Jasper White brings to 50 Chowders the same enthusiasm and flair that made his previous book, Lobster at Home, "like having a Down Easter by your side, distilling years of experience and telling you just what to do" (Corby Kummer of The Atlantic Unbound). With this treasure trove of information and expertise in your kitchen, you will never think of chowder in the same way again.
New England clam, Manhattan red, and corn--that's the chowder story, right? Wrong. In 50 Chowders, award-winning chef Jasper White explores a surprisingly wide range of these savory one-pot meals while also offering chowder history and folklore, in-depth ingredient profiles, cooking tips, and technique instruction. (Did you know that chowder is best "cured" for one hour to three days after it's made to allow flavors to meld?) Probably the last word on the subject, the book delivers the kind of comprehensive culinary profile that enlightens even seasoned cooks. Everyone will find its recipes tempting and approachable. Beginning with a history of chowder--White sets its birth in the 18th century, citing among its possible "inventors" Native Americans, French or English fishermen, or settlers in Canada and Massachusetts--the book then explores typical chowder ingredients such as the all-important salt pork. Recipes follow for classic seafood chowders and for "farmhouse" brews such as Spring-Dug Parsnip, Shaker Fresh Cranberry Bean, and Nantucket Veal. Other chowder newcomers include Digby Bay Scallop Chowder with Cabbage and Bacon, Lightly Curried Mussel Chowder, and Bermuda Fish Chowder, which is served, deliciously, with a pitcher of rum. White also provides a chapter on chowder companions such as common crackers and includes recipes for Cheddar Cheese Biscuits and Skillet Corn Bread, among other go-withs. With eight pages of color photos and numerous technique illustrations, the book gives a humble but essential American dish its full due at last. --Arthur Boehm
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