Lobster Chowder Chowder is the great forbidden food. It double violates the Old Testament dietary laws found in Leviticus. The mingling of milk and meat—the soul of the chowder—goes against Hebrew kashrut—and shellfish is explicitly prohibited in Leviticus 11 as a detestable source of nutriment. But the good Puritans of New England took comfort in the suspension of the dietary laws in a divine vision given to Peter. The old believers of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Providence Plantations embraced the divine largesse and made seafood stewed in milk a culinary signature of New England. Oyster Chowder, Eel Chowder, Clam Chowder, and the rarest of the regional chowders, Lobster Chowder have been elaborated and refined in dozens of recipes. The older recipes have crackers as thickening. Bacon supplies the fat in most traditional formulas. Chopped onion, cubed potato are frequently found. When sweet corn became plentiful in the beginning of the 19th century that found its way into the chowder pot. Salt and pepper were the Puritan seasonings. Nutmeg was the first spice to be added to pot in the 1790s.
ISSUE 60, CHOWDERS, Part 2: Lobster Chowder
ISSUE 60, CHOWDERS, Part 2: Lobster Chowder
ISSUE 60, CHOWDERS, Part 2: Lobster Chowder
Lobster Chowder Chowder is the great forbidden food. It double violates the Old Testament dietary laws found in Leviticus. The mingling of milk and meat—the soul of the chowder—goes against Hebrew kashrut—and shellfish is explicitly prohibited in Leviticus 11 as a detestable source of nutriment. But the good Puritans of New England took comfort in the suspension of the dietary laws in a divine vision given to Peter. The old believers of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Providence Plantations embraced the divine largesse and made seafood stewed in milk a culinary signature of New England. Oyster Chowder, Eel Chowder, Clam Chowder, and the rarest of the regional chowders, Lobster Chowder have been elaborated and refined in dozens of recipes. The older recipes have crackers as thickening. Bacon supplies the fat in most traditional formulas. Chopped onion, cubed potato are frequently found. When sweet corn became plentiful in the beginning of the 19th century that found its way into the chowder pot. Salt and pepper were the Puritan seasonings. Nutmeg was the first spice to be added to pot in the 1790s.