Clam chowder from Moby Dick

“However, a warm savoury steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained.

Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship- biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favourite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we dispatched it with great expedition…”

H. Melville - Moby Dick

There’s no food more synonymous with Moby Dick than chowder. Melville devotes a whole chapter to describing Ishmael and Queequeg’s chowder feast at a little establishment called the Try Pots.

Our chowder is altered just a bit from the one in the book to allow for more modern ingredients. The chowder in the book is described as containing crushed ship’s biscuits, which we imagine acted as a thickener, so we used cornstarch to achieve the same effect.

It also calls for salted pork, which I swapped for bacon, since they’re so similar.

We then sauteed some onion and garlic in melted butter and threw in some potatoes, celery and, of course, clams.

The final result was creamy, savory, and salty, just the sort of stick-to-your-ribs meal you need before heading out on a long ocean voyage.

What do you need.

4 kg clams, brushed and drained

1 tablespoon of butter

200 g smoked bacon, cut into strips

2 celery stalks,

1 large onion and 1 garlic clove, minced

1.5 kg yellow-fleshed potatoes, cut into cubes bay leaf, thyme, chives to taste

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups cream

toast to serve

Butter

How to proceed

Open the clams with four cups of water in a high-sided saucepan.

Drain the molluscs with a perforated spatula and keep the cooking liquid.

Shell the clams and filter the liquid: about six cups will be needed for the preparation – possibly diluted with a little water.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the bacon and cook until golden brown (it will take about six to eight minutes over medium heat). Add celery, onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, for about ten minutes.

They should become transparent and not burn. Add the diced potatoes, bay leaf and thyme together with the reserved cooking liquid from the clams.

Simmer until the potatoes are tender but not mushy, about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Separately, dissolve the starch in two tablespoons of warm water.

Stir into the chowder and bring back to the boil.

When the potatoes are ready, remove the pan from the heat, remove the bay leaf, add the previously prepared clams and the cream. Season with salt and pepper and serve piping hot in individual bowls, garnishing with crackers and chives.

If desired, milk can be substituted for the cream, increasing the dose of cornstarch by a few grams.