The Book of Chowder

by Richard James Hooker

Best loved and little-known recipes, from Boston to San Francisco and in between.

Genres: Cookbooks

Paperback

First published September 15, 1978

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the best breakdowns of the different styles of Clam Chowder and most of the interesting variants on it.

If Cream + Potato + Onion + Seafood appeals to you
this is the book of all time

It's definately in my top 200 cookbooks

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than a cookbook, this is a fascinating history of chowder in all its permutations. It follows its evolution from a layered, crustless pie to the soup we know today, including the split between New England- and Manhattan-style clam chowder. The recipes are arranged chronologically and are presented as originally written, including such nebulous measurements as “a fist size” piece of salt pork. Fortunately, Hooper includes a cheat sheet that translates these measurements into something more familiar to the modern cook. He also has an introduction to each recipe giving its provenance, a bit about the publisher, and any changes they made when testing the recipe. So far, I’ve only cooked one recipe; I thought it turned out well. Even noncooks who are interested in the history of food and the ways a dish travels the world and evolves at each port of all will be entrlhralled by this book.

[Rose]

641.5 Hoo