SC - Olwen's success

[James R. May]

ruadh wrote:
> 
> Sugar to take the bitters off Tomatoes, yup done that.
> But trying to eat Manhattan style Clam Chow'dah, well all I can think of
> "There's something injured in there. And the fix is .... to stop digging the
> clams out of the East River...." [ that line came from a 'folk song' group
> called Schooner Fair, Portsmouth, Maine] . To me its just Tomato/Veggie soup
> with Clams, can't be called Chow'dah ... can't stand a spoon *up* in it.
> Ru

Hmmm. That view is more or less the moral equivalent of taking library
paste with rubber bands cut up in it, and saying, yum, New England
Chowder, obviously the concept is faulty.

What you are dealing with is a faulty execution, and you have
beautifully illustrated my point. Canonically speaking (and people do
wax canonical, or think they do, and feelings do run high for no logical
reason, where chowder is concerned), the only reason you should be able
to stand a spoon up in legitimate chowder is that it has so little
liquid it has to be regarded as Irish Stew made with fish, and you've
pierced layers of fish flesh, onion, salt pork, and either ship's
biscuit, potato, or both. It has no especially thick liquid, and
properly contains no milk, let alone cream. 

Proper Manhattan Chowder (which, as I say, is a derivative of Montauk
Chowder, which in turn is a derivative of Block Island Chowder, so there
is a shift from codlike fishes to the wrasse-like tautogs/blackfish and
tilefish of the waters to the south of New England) has had a _small_
amount of some tomato product (often added to New England Chowder in the
form of ketchup in the nineteenth century, in practice if not in theory)
in place of the butter that is the sole dairy product involved in the
whole shebang up North. It (Manhattan) has been known to include, also,
odd bits of celery and bell pepper, but these are nonessential and
constitute only a garnish.

I agree, I hate overcooked, thin tomato & veg soup with rubbery clams,
but that is not what Manhattan Chowder is, any more than making New
England Chowder from some kind of powdered mix constitutes giving _it_ a
fair shake. The unfortunate reality is that most people have had seminal
chowder experiences with canned products, and that canned NE survives
better than canned Manhattan. In the real world, though, things are
different.      

Adamantius (evangelical New York food advocate)
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com