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    Video: making authentic New England clam chowder at home

    By | Shine Food – Tue, Sep 30, 2008 5:41 PM EDT

    In our ongoing video series Chef Bruce Mattel, from the Culinary Institute of America, demonstrates how to make a classic New England clam chowder.

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    In this video, The Culinary Institute of America's Associate Dean for Curriculum and Instruction for Culinary Arts, Bruce Mattel, shows us how to make classic New England clam chowder.

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    The word "chowder" is likely derived from the French "chaudière," a cooking cauldron used by fishermen, and was first used in North America in the 1730s, according to Alan Davidson's The Oxford Companion to Food. Davidson notes that throughout what is now Canada and New England, "....a natural marriage took place between the clams which the Indians had and the pots which the settlers brought." Although there are many variations on and disagreements about this dish, the quintessential New England clam chowder, like this one, is made with a milk or cream base (unlike Manhattan clam chowder, which has tomatoes -- an appalling concept to many in the region, even though the latter dish actually originated in Rhode Island). Classic New England seafood chowders also contain bacon or salt pork, potatoes, and onions. For a pleasing visual and flavor touch, garnish with chopped chives, as Chef Mattel demonstrates.

    Recipe:

    New England Clam Chowder



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    Megan O. Steintrager is a senior editor at Epicurious.com. She has worked as a writer and editor at Epicurious since the late '90s. Steintrager holds a master's in journalism from New York University with a concentration in Cultural Reporting and Criticism, and has taken numerous cooking classes at New York 's Institute for Culinary Education and the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health. She has worked as a writer and editor for ConsumerReports.org, Restaurant Business magazine, and Spin.com, and has been published in Self, Brides, and Time Out New York, among other print and online publications.


    Photo by CIA/Keith Ferris

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