ISSUE 60, CHOWDERS, Part 3: Corn Chowder
Corn Chowder
Originally made with “green corn,” that is a dent field corn in the milk stage cut from the cob, corn chowder became a national dish in the 1880s. The thinking was simple: milky corn cooked in milk made corn chowder seem somehow just a close cousin of creamed corn. It became popular in the Midwest and Northeast before the South. A Texas newspaper in November 1886 wrote, “a vegetable chowder may be a novelty to some readers, but it is a very palatable dish.” [San Saba News (November 26, 1886), 2]. The popularity of the dish exploded after groceries began stocking canned shoe peg and other sweet corns in the later 1880s.
Like most chowders the corn chowder began with diced salt pork fried in your kettle. The idea of all vegetable and dairy corn chowder only arose in the 20th century. White potatoes were often paired with the corn. The great debate was whether onions are to be fried with the pork.
The aesthetics of corn chowder prize thickness. This was achieved by using flour as a thickened, mashed crackers, or employing cream instead of or combined with milk. Butter was also often incorporated into the final heating. The seasoning was always simple: only salt and pepper. I had a southwestern corn chowder in Santa Fe that had cumin in it. I did not like it. There is a corn chowder that appeared in the 1990s with grated Parmesan in it. Sublime.
Early in the twentieth century after Manhattan Style Clam Chowder with its tomatoes and peppers caused an expansion of the meaning of chowder to include soups lacking milk as a liquid, a “Savory Green Corn Chowder” became popular across the United States after newspaper editors across the continent republished an August 15, 1907 recipe by ‘Susie’ printed in the Phildelphia Inquirer:
The seasoning was minimal in the original recipe. Louisiana elaborations of this would add red pepper, an acid element, and lots of garden herbs.
The next evolution of corn chowder would take place after World War II when the incorporation of Turkey leftovers into corn chowder made the classic post-Thanksgiving “Turkey Corn Chowder,” an alternative to older standbys such as Turkey Hash and Turkey Club Sandwiches. The addition of Turkey into the chowder mix invited greater adventurousness in seasoning, with sage, cumin, and even nutmeg complicating the flavor of the pot. The New Orleans Times Picayune for November 29, 1979 supplied the most convenient formula for this classic dish, using canned corn and canned chicken stock. The seasoning is surprisingly unadventurous for New Orleans.