New England Clam Chowder

Ten weeks pregnant and the nausea has settled into something I can manage with crackers and strategic meal timing, which is a significant quality of life improvement. I'm back to cooking with something approaching my usual range, though garlic is still on probation and raw chicken continues to be a person I'm not speaking to right now.

At work I'm in that interesting space of knowing something enormous while continuing to do my job exactly as I always have, and noticing the way my patients look at me with the specific focus of people who need care and don't need my personal news. I find this focusing rather than constraining. The work is the same work. The body I'm doing it with has new information in it, but the work is the same work.

We went back to the Cape for the weekend — same house in Wellfleet that Marcus's family let us borrow, same stretch of outer Cape coast. The first time we were there was honeymoon-adjacent and everything felt large and new; this time it felt settled, which is a different and not lesser quality. We walked on the beach at sunset and Sean D. picked up a rock and handed it to me and said, "Souvenir from the trip." I said, "It's a rock." He said, "Exactly." I kept the rock. It's on the windowsill in the kitchen.

Made clam chowder Saturday at the rental house, which required going to a local fish market for the clams and a small grocery for the potatoes and cream, and making it from scratch in someone else's kitchen with someone else's pots and a stove I didn't know. The result was imperfect and very good. A friend once told me that clam chowder you make on vacation always tastes better than clam chowder you make at home, and I thought she was wrong, but I think now she was right: context is flavor.

That Saturday chowder in the Wellfleet kitchen — made with unfamiliar pots and a stove I had to figure out in real time — is the recipe I keep coming back to. It wasn’t the best chowder I’ve ever made on a technical level, but my friend was right: context really is flavor, and a bowl of something warm after a beach walk with someone who hands you a rock and calls it a souvenir is its own kind of seasoning. Here’s the version I’ve written down, imperfections smoothed out just enough to be useful.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 pounds littleneck clams, scrubbed
2 cups water
4 slices thick-cut bacon, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fresh chives, chopped, for serving
Oyster crackers, for serving

Instructions

Steam the clams. Place clams and water in a large pot over high heat. Cover and cook until clams open, about 6 to 8 minutes. Discard any that don’t open. Remove clams from shells and chop roughly. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth and reserve — you should have about 2 1/2 cups.
Render the bacon. In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, cook the diced bacon until crispy, about 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the fat in the pot.
Build the base. Add butter to the bacon fat. Once melted, add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the vegetables and stir constantly for 1 minute to cook out the raw taste.
Add the liquid. Slowly pour in the reserved clam broth, stirring to prevent lumps. Add the potatoes, bay leaf, and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 to 18 minutes.
Finish the chowder. Stir in the heavy cream and chopped clams. Cook gently over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes — do not boil or the clams will toughen. Remove the bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with reserved bacon and chopped chives. Serve with oyster crackers.

Nutrition (per serving)

New England Clam Chowder — Context Is Flavor