By Richard J. Hooker (1978)
[FROM THE PUBLISHERS]
Chowder came to North America about two and a half centuries ago from a misty European background. In the New World it quickly won great favor as a delicious, hearty, easily made meal created from only a few ingredients. It became so well entrenched in the country's diet that it was carried across the continent by successive generations of American pioneers. In its movement through time and space it acquired ever new contents and characteristics.
But chowder had traveled even before it reached American shores. The beginnings of what would become American chowders may have appeared first in small French fishing villages, possibly in Brittany. From these, chowders might have found a home on ships and in New England. By the early 18th century it had reached Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New England, and in time, other English settlements to the South. These American landings could have been made in the company of immigrants from England or France or of sailors who would come to know chowder while sailing international shipping lanes.
Today, though degraded in many restaurants, the dish called chowder is alive and healthy. Numerous Americans in flight from the neat, easy, and uninteresting world of processed foods and fast food restaurants have discovered that chowders, like other dishes made from the bounty of nature and the gardens of mankind, can contribute to the joy of living.
Culinary and historical anecdotes accompany recipes that range from a 1751 concoction for Boston fish chowder to a 1972 recipe for lima bean chowder
VINTAGE PAPERBACK - EXCELLENT CONDITION