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1 pint water

Sour cream

Dice the salt pork and fry it until brown. Add the onions and green peppers to the salt pork and drippings. Let them sauté to a light brown. Dice 3 of the potatoes. Add the quahogs with their liquid and the diced potatoes to the salt pork, onion, and pepper. Add the seasonings and let it all simmer until the potatoes are done.

Cut the remaining 3 potatoes into small pieces, put them in a blender with the water, and blend until creamy. Add this to the clam mixture and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with a dab of sour cream.

FISH CHOWDER

This is a hearty dish for a number of people. It can be cut in half, if you wish, but I like it best for a big party.

10 pounds fish, plus heads and bones

1/2 pound salt pork

1/2 cup butter

1 cup chopped onion

2 to 3 pounds potatoes, sliced about 3/8 inch thick

2 to 3 quarts milk

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Thyme

Use several kinds of fish and order the heads and bones as well; cover these with water and simmer them for 1 hour. Strain the broth.

Cut the salt pork into small dice and try it out until crisp in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion and brown lightly. Boil potatoes in salted water till just tender.

Cut the fish into small fingers and simmer these in the fish broth for about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the potatoes, onions, and salt pork and let it come to the boiling point. Add the milk and season to taste. Let the mixture come just to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the butter and a sprinkling of thyme.

Fish chowder is usually served with pilot crackers, but I prefer fried bread with mine.

CARIBBEAN CHOWDER

1/4 pound salt pork or bacon

Butter

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

11/2 pounds fish (grouper, snapper)

3 large potatoes

Milk or light cream

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Oregano

Thyme

11/2 pounds lobster

1/2 pound shrimp

Cut the salt pork into small dice and try it out in a little butter. Add the garlic and onion and brown lightly.

Chop the fish or put it through a fine grinder. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until just tender. Put the potatoes and the chopped fish through a puree machine or force them through a fine sieve. Add them to the salt pork and onion mixture, and add enough milk or light cream to make a soup. Season to taste with salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme.

Cook the lobster and shrimp in boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Shell the shrimp and cut them into small pieces. Remove the lobster meat from its shell. Add the lobster and chopped shrimp to the soup and heat it to the boiling point. Correct the seasoning.

VARIATIONS

1. Add 1/2 cup of sherry or Madeira to the soup before serving.

2. Blaze the lobster and shrimp meat with brandy before adding it to the soup.

MARGARET JENNINGS’S CRAB SOUP

This is one of those soups that, seasoned by mistake, became a notable gastronomic discovery.

1 pound crabmeat

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups sauce béchamel (pages 23–24)

1 cup cream, or more

1/3 cup Scotch whisky

Heat the crabmeat in the milk and butter. Prepare a light béchamel and add the cream to it after it has come to the boiling point. Add the crabmeat and heat again until it reaches the boiling point. Season to taste, and add more cream if it needs thinning. Just before serving, stir in the Scotch. Serve in heated cups with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.

CREAM OF SEAFOOD SOUP

12 shrimp

4 cups court bouillon (page 20)

12 crayfish or 1 small lobster

1/4 pound butter

12 mussels

1/2 cup white wine

Bouquet garni (onion, parsley, thyme)

12 oysters

3 tablespoons flour

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Cayenne pepper

2 cups cream

3 egg yolks

Croutons

Shell the shrimp; poach just the shells in court bouillon for 3 minutes. Leave the shells in the broth. Poach the lobster or crayfish for 8 minutes. If you are using lobster, remove the meat from the shell and cut it into small pieces. (With crayfish, remove the meat from the tails.)

Grind the lobster (or crayfish) shells