Manhattan Clam Chowder

Trio Chowder Sampler from Ed's Chowder House Source

Some excerpts from my research paper focusing on the background and history of the Manhattan Clam Chowder and its rivalry with the New England Clam Chowder.
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To what degree is the red chowder’s supposed inferiority an actual reflection of consumers’ personal preference and gustatory experience? The history of this particular chowder dating back to the 19^th century reveals a recipe with roots in East Coast immigrant populations as well as in working class families dealing with scarcity.

Clam chowder, as we know it today, was popularized well after the eighteenth century when clams were being harvested and potatoes were finally incorporated in the kitchen. The word chowder comes from the French word chaudière, which refers to the type of cauldron in which the soup was cooked, neither refers to the ingredients nor sets a standard for the texture. There is great assortment of chowders, each honing in on local ingredients that are plentiful in that particular region, but there remains three essential ingredients that merit a soup the name “chowder”:  diced salt pork, onions cooked in fat and potato chunks.

This name for the tomato-based clam chowder was likely to be introduced almost a century later during the 1930s as evidence by Virginia Elliot and Robert Jones’s in Soups and Sauces. The descriptor “Manhattan” was most likely first used as a pejorative term by New Englanders, who sought to demonstrate their opinion of this lesser chowder. It was during the 1890s, after Child published her recipe using ketchup that red chowder began to appear in New York as an imported dish by Italian and Portuguese immigrants.  At this time chowder could be found under the name of Coney Island Clam Chowder or Fulton Market Clam Chowder in Delmonico’s Restaurant, where the tomato-based chowder was first seen in New York.

Manhattan's The Grand Central Oyster Bar (Source)

Some folklore in New England, in Maine in particular, went as far as to curse anyone who dare consume the Manhattan Clam Chowder with upset stomachs, hair loss and even death. The wild collective imagination of Maine residents inspired a state assemblyman to introduce a bill that would make it a statutory and culinary offense to include tomatoes into a chowder. The appearance of such folklore and political action in history not only shows the depth of the rivalry but also the near pandemonium that ensues when tradition is disrupted. For New Englanders, the substitution of cream for tomatoes was not seen as innovation but rather, as the corruption of the perfectly delicious white chowder in which they took pride.

Source

P.S. I'm interested in making Manhattan clam Chowder once I'm back in my own kitchen, but I don't want to have to use bacon. I actually found a recipe and am curious to see if it's 'just as good'. If you're interested here's the link for bacon-free Manhattan Chowder:

http://hotcheapeasy.com/2011/05/21/manhattan-clam-chowder-zesty-cozy-bacon-free/