http://www.sophistimom.com/new-england-clam-chowder/ ensuring my family is well-read, well-bred, and well-fed Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:01:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 http://www.sophistimom.com/new-england-clam-chowder/comment-page-1/#comment-216 Jaime Richardson Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:25:57 +0000 http://www.sophistimom.com/?p=175#comment-216 I had a comment recently about thickening this chowder. Most cream soups start with a roux, which is melted butter (or another type of fat), mixed with an almost equal part of flour, and then cooked for a minute or so until the flour loses some of its raw taste. Anytime you change the proportions of the amount of flour or fat, you may end up with different results. When I was experimenting with this recipe last, I thought I would like to decrease the amount of fat. Doing this meant decreasing the amount of flour, too. I was unhappy with how it thickened. So I made a smaller batch of roux in another pan, added a bit of milk to make basically a bechamel sauce, and added it back into the soup. If I wanted to keep it lower fat, I think I would have not added the extra roux, and stuck with a thinner soup. (my grandmother used to make it that way, and it still tasted fantastic.) I could have also added more potatoes at the beginning, and put half of them in a blender after they were cooked. That would have also helped with the amount of fat. Now to the lemon juice. The lemon juice is a great part of this chowder because it helps cut through the heavy taste of the cream and flour. It also adds a great depth of flavor. If you choose to decrease the amount of fat by making less roux (hence less flour), or by adding more potatoes (and then blending them), your soup will lose a bit of its richness. I would suggest using less lemon juice by decreasing it to 1 or two teaspoons. It won't have as much heaviness to cut though. I had a comment recently about thickening this chowder. Most cream soups start with a roux, which is melted butter (or another type of fat), mixed with an almost equal part of flour, and then cooked for a minute or so until the flour loses some of its raw taste. Anytime you change the proportions of the amount of flour or fat, you may end up with different results. When I was experimenting with this recipe last, I thought I would like to decrease the amount of fat. Doing this meant decreasing the amount of flour, too. I was unhappy with how it thickened. So I made a smaller batch of roux in another pan, added a bit of milk to make basically a bechamel sauce, and added it back into the soup. If I wanted to keep it lower fat, I think I would have not added the extra roux, and stuck with a thinner soup. (my grandmother used to make it that way, and it still tasted fantastic.) I could have also added more potatoes at the beginning, and put half of them in a blender after they were cooked. That would have also helped with the amount of fat.
Now to the lemon juice. The lemon juice is a great part of this chowder because it helps cut through the heavy taste of the cream and flour. It also adds a great depth of flavor. If you choose to decrease the amount of fat by making less roux (hence less flour), or by adding more potatoes (and then blending them), your soup will lose a bit of its richness. I would suggest using less lemon juice by decreasing it to 1 or two teaspoons. It won’t have as much heaviness to cut though.

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