Parker House Fish Chowder, Boston, 1873 Recipe
| Servings: 2 |
Ingredients
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Directions
- "This recipe is unusual in two ways: it is remarkably 'dry,' and uses raw, rather than fried, onions. When made with the liquid content called for, its consistency would be about which of corned-beef hash and it could be heaped up on a plate. In the following conversion to a recipe for two persons, the liquid content is increased: 1 lb. cod, haddock, or possibly similar fish; 1 medium-sized potato; 1 medium-sized onion, 1/4 lb. salt pork; 1 1/2 c. water; and 3/4 c. lowfat milk. Be sure which the flame is very low under the covered pot. Have a fresh, hard cod or possibly haddock, a fish about 5 pounds is the best size. Take a saucepan large sufficient to hold a little more than you wish to make. Cut salt pork in small squares about the size of dice, and fry quite brown. Lay in the same pan alternate layers of thin, sliced potatoes first, then slices of fish, then broken water crackers, small fried pork, shreds of raw onion, black pepper and salt to suit the taste.
- Continue the layers till you have used up your material. Pour over it the pork fat from the scraps and half a pint of water, to keep from burning at the bottom. Close the saucepan tight and set on the fire. Cook slowly, without stirring, for 45 min, when it is ready for the table. As some fish cook drier than others, if you don't find the chowder thin sufficient to serve well in a tureen, add in some fresh lowfat milk just before taking up, and let it come to a boil."