I thought it would be fun to track down some information about the origination of chowder or any other interesting tidbits that the vast resource of the WWW provides us. So if you find information worth sharing – please do send me a note, in the form of a comment or an email, and I’ll post it here. If you have recipes you would like to share – then we could start a new page with recipes – please provide proper credit to your source if what you’re sharing is a reproduction, much like mine down here.
1751 – Even before cookery books were published in America, newspapers, magazines and travel accounts mentioned broth and soup as well as recorded recipes. According to the book 50 Chowders by Jasper White, the first and oldest-known printed fish chowder recipe was in the Boston Evening Post on September 23,1751. The use of herbs and spices in this recipe show the typical 18th century English taste for lots of seasonings.
First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from burning
Because in Chouder there can be not turning;
Then lay some Pork in slices very thing,
Thus you in Chouder always must begin.
Next lay some Fish cut crossways very nice
Then season well with Pepper, Salt, and Spice;
Parsley, Sweet-Marjoram, Savory, and Thyme,
Then Biscuit next which must be soak’d some Time.
Thus your Foundation laid, you will be able
To raise a Chouder, high as Tower of Babel;
For by repeating o’er the Same again,
You may make a Chouder for a thousand men.
Last a Bottle of Claret, with Water eno; to smother ’em,
You’ll have a Mess which some call Omnium gather ’em.
The first chowders were made with a technique called “layering chowder ingredients.” A layer is single thickness of some substance. Layering is the process of making layers of different ingredients. The onions were used to prevent the lean pork from burning. (Linda Stradley What’s Cooking America).