Basic New England Style Clam Chowder is extremely easy to make. Ingredients are Potatos ( Well boiled to the point of becoming mashable ) Clams Clam Juice Onions ( Chopped ) Milk or Cream or Sour Cream Black Pepper or Crushed Pepper Corns. Alternate or Additonal Ingredients ... Butter Mixed Veggies ( Peas, Carrots, Corn, Grean Beans ) Now let's get something down about the potatoes. You need to boil the heck out of them so that they start to break down into semi-mashable form, but leaving lumps of potato. You can probably get away with cutting up a couple spuds and boiling them and them supplementing the effort with instant mash potato flakes. It's ok to cheat. Cream is better than milk. Clam Chowder is meant to be a rich warming energy food, suitable for a cold night on the beach. Legend has it that its origins go back to clam diggers who tossed together chowder impromptu on the beach after digging their own clams. As far as spices go, black pepper is typically all and it is added at the table as preferred. But you are free to experiment with spices. To make California Gold chowder, things are somewhat similar. However, substitute cross-cut scallions, including some of the greens, for the onions. I like to use sour cream as it is thicker than cream. Not so Secret addititives ... Melt butter in a separate pot. Add lemon juice Add crushed garlic. Secret additive. Add crushed safflower, enough to yellow, not to orange or redden. When the basic New England Stuff is done cook'n and the butter, lemon juice, garlic, safflower stuff is done cook'n in a separate pot, mix the two parts together, folding the yellow stuff into the white stuff lightly so as to create and not to destroy the visual effect of rivulets or veins of Gold. If you do it right, the yellow stuff should rise and form rivulets that remain separate from the white potato/sour cream stuff ... a very pleasing visual effect and tasty too. The rivulets will ride distinctly upon the basic chowder and will have a rich golden color. Note that you can't preserve this effect by canning or bottling this mixture. You'll ruin it. To get the effect, you gotta do it at the instant. Safflower is a bit expensive, but you don't need much and it is added more for visual effect than flavor. Safflower flavor is very subtle. It's always nice to add a little crab meat or some chopped scallops to California Gold chowder. If you know how to make cheesy bread, it goes good with California Gold Chowder and you can use the secret additive to make a California Gold Cheesy Bread. Get a sour dough loaf and cut evenly top from bottom. Make up a second batch of the yellow mixture and butter the two halves with it. Top with shredded Mozzarella or White Cheddar. Broil until the cheese melts and slightly browns on Aluminum Foil or in a pyrex baking pan. Enjoy. If you have some secret sauce left over, saute' some prawns ( aka scampi or mediumor large shrimps ) in it to complete the meal. Guess what I've go in my cupboard and fridge at this very moment? :)

I agree with maybeldingeldine's instructions completely. They have the procedure as well as the ingredients, which mine did not. Those instructions will give you an authentic New England clam chowder. The point about mashing a few of the potatoes is a good one. Starch from the potatoes was the only thickening in chowder made by old time Yankees. They may have used a higher proportion of potatoes than I do or they may have cooked them more or maybe they just liked a thinner chowder. One point not discussed so far is preparation of the clams. Big hardshell clams (chowder quahogs) are used. Traditionally the clams are shucked by someone who is handy with a clam knife and the raw clams are chopped or run through a meat grinder. For those who find shucking clams to be daunting, the clams can be opened by steaming them, only as long as necessary to get them open. Cooking toughens clams. Note that they are added near the end of making the chowder for that reason. Use just the amount of water necessary for steaming, so as to not dilute the precious juice more than necessary. Another trick, when live clams "clam up" too strongly, making them difficult to open, is to place them in the freezer for a while to relax them. Chowder can probably be made from canned clams and bottled clam juice. I won't attempt to say how because I haven't done it. Fresh chopped clams are sometimes available in fish markets too. Jim This post was edited by jimster on Mon, Dec 24, 12 at 17:08

Darn. I have a favorite Manhattan (red). I make one like this but this sounds better with the bacon. I'd chose thyme over dill plus 1/4 tsp crushed fennel seed and a clove of garlic. 1/4 c. dry white wine is an option. And never never do I simmer clams for 45 min.! 5 min. in the hot soup is plenty. Posted by shaun (My Page) on Mon, Jan 11, 10 at 21:16 I tried a new recipe tonight that was originally posted by gardengrl on 2/5/09: Awesome Clam Chowder 6-7 pieces bacon, cut into small pieces 1 med onion, chopped 2 (5 ounce) cans baby clams, with juice reserved 1 bottle clam juice 5 potatoes, peeled and cubed into 2" chunks 2 (10 1/2 ounce) cans cream of celery soup 1 cup heavy cream 1 cup milk 1 1/2 Tb butter 1 tsp dried dill weed (if you don't have dill weed, use thyme) 1 tsp pepper Salt to taste Add bacon to dutch oven and cook on medium heat until crispy. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add clam juice from both cans of clams plus bottle of clam juice. Add potatoes, bring to a simmer, and cover until potatoes are fork tender (about 15-20 minutes). Stir occasionally so potatoes won't stick. Add *clams*, soup, cream, milk, dill weed and stir together. Add butter and let melt into the chowder, then add pepper. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes or until thickened. Stir occasionally and add salt to taste. The only thing I did different was, I added some fresh garlic to this soup. This is really a delicious chowder and very easy to make. *clams are going to toughen --- add 5 min. before done.

I can't imagine what you are talking about.....a creamy chowder with bits of tomatoes, potatoes, clams and strongly flavored with thyme? Linda C