From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chowder is any of a variety of soups, enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour, or more traditionally with crushed ship biscuit or saltine crackers, and milk. To some Americans, it means clam chowder, made with cream or milk in most places, or with tomato as "Manhattan clam chowder." Corn chowder is a thick soup filled with whole corn (maize) kernels. The most accepted etymology for the word chowder comes from the pot in which it is cooked. The French word chaudière translated means "a pot," developed from chaud, "hot" (also related to the Latin Calderia and English Cauldron). The word "chowder" is a New England word that came from Newfoundland, where Breton fishermen — who would throw portions of the day's catch and other available foods into a large pot — introduced the word, and perhaps the fish soup itself (compare bouillabaisse). Another possible origin for the word Chowder is derived from the Old English "jowter", which means fishmonger (one who peddles fish).

Fish chowder, along with corn and clam chowder, continues to enjoy popularity in New England.

Contents 1 Chowder competitions 2 References to chowder in popular culture 3 References 4 External links 5 Recipes

Newport, Rhode Island's Great Chowder Cook-Off, held each year since 1981, is the world's largest and oldest chowder competition.[1] The 2003 event was featured in a Food Network documentary.[2][3]

• Duke's Chowder House http://www.dukeschowderhouse.com in Seattle has won the Northwest Chowder Cook Off so many times they were asked to withdraw from future competitions.

• As Springfield Meatloaf, in at least one episode of The Simpsons. The pronunciation of the word "chowder" (properly pronounced in a Boston accent as "chowdah") also served as an important plot element in another episode, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. In another Simpsons episode, Homer while praying to God thanks God "for giving us two kinds of Clam Chowder".
• In the song, c. 1898 by George L. Giefer "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," which survives primarily (slightly corrupted) as a repeated children's chant "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder?/Nobody answered so we asked a little louder." Lyrics at [4], [5], [6], tune at [7], 1901 audio recording at [8].
• Allusion in Star Trek: "Who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?"
• In the slang word "chowderhead." Wentworth and Flexner: "A stupid person; one who uses poor judgment. Since c. 1835." (One of many expressions analogizing a head to a soft, mushy substance).
• Chowder has a pretty prominent appearance in one of the opening chapters of "Moby Dick". Clam and cod chowder are served to Ishmael and Qeequeg in Mrs. Hussey's Try Pots Inn at Nantucket the evening before Ishmael sets his foot on the Pequot for the first time.[9]

• Wentworth, Harold and Stuart Berg Flexner, 1967, Dictionary of American Slang, Thomas Y. Crowell, NY. ISBN 0-690-23602-6 ("Chowderhead" definition, in use since c. 1835).

• Robert's Guide To Eating Chowder

• Mussel Chowder Recipe

• Mussel Chowder
• Duke's Chowder House Chowder recipe