New England Corn Chowder
A hearty and easy New England corn chowder recipe that can be made in winter from canned corn. Served with corn bread and pickles or relish.
By Yankee Magazine|Feb 28 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanA hearty and easy New England corn chowder recipe that can be made in winter from canned corn. Served with corn bread and pickles or relish, this is a familiar New England supper.
Yield:
Serves 6Ingredients
1/2 cup salt pork, diced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/8 cup green pepper, chopped
1 medium potato, peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups warm milk
1 20 oz. can creamed corn
chopped parsley
Instructions
Sauté the salt pork, then add to the pan and sauté the onions, celery, and green pepper. Add the potatoes, salt, and water, and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add the flour, milk, and corn, and heat all together thoroughly. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.
Never put green pepper in New England Chowders….
Delicious too adding an ear of fresh corn off the cob and handful of shredded cheddar cheese
YANKEE—–really?? a can of creamed corn????? where did this recipe come from?
My mother used to make this a lot [and I still do] but she never put the salt pork in it on Friday’s in Lent. I put a little white pepper in mine but never green peppers. Like a lot of corn chowder makers, I don’t measure ingredients, just eyeball the amounts based on the size of the pot. We had a Soup Night at our condo complex and few weeks ago and my corn chowder was a big hit.
I like to add a pinch of Red Pepper flakes for a little kick up no green pepper
Red pepper flakes, love the idea. I will keep this in mind for my next batch of chowder. mmm.
I add a dash or two of Cayenne Pepper to my Corn Chowder. No pepper flakes.
when I make it I use cooked bacon broken up and 1 can fresh corn to 2 cans of creamed corn and you don’t have to use any flour or milk, I do like the sounds of some shredded cheddar cheese in it, I’ll have to try that the next time.
Hi Roberta, I wish I had your recipe. It sounds like what my Mother used to make.
Green peppers in Corn Chowder, Ahh, NO…….
Love corn chowder. Green pepper? No!
We hear you, Judith! Since the recipe only calls for 1/8 cup of green pepper, you can feel totally comfortable omitting it. 🙂
No no green peppers in corn chowder and most definitely more than one potato. 2 cans creamed corn, one can whole kernel corn, one can evaporated milk, appx 1 cup milk. No flour needed as this creates a nice creamy chowder.
Originally my family never added green peppers, but tried them when an elderly family friend served us her corn chowder which had slivers of grilled green pepper in it. I like it either way. Over the years, I’ve experimented with the soup. I never use salt pork, either bacon or breakfast sausage, which gets crumbled and added to the chowder, so I usually use more then one or two. I’ve tried it with chicken broth rather then milk, but my lactose intolerant child still didn’t like it, though her siblings liked it either way. At one point I added grilled mushroom pieces, okay, but not my favorite. I haven’t made any variation of corn chowder in a few years, but keep buying the ingredients which I eventually donate to the food pantry before the cans expire. Maybe I should get the current batch of ingredients out and make some corn chowder, probably with the red, yellow and green peppers in it, as I like them. lol We all have our differences.
Family is Yankee all the way back to the Mayflower… green peppers? Pepper flakes? Sigh. Grandmother made it with evaporated milk, small cubes of potato, both creamed and tinned corn, and lots of black pepper. Started with a roux, at the end it was topped with crispy salt pork cubes. No fresh corn as it was made in the winter! We used the same stock for fish chowder, and clam chowder. I cooked my grandmother’s corn chowder for Walter Arnold, one of the last old Maine Guides at his cabin in Sebac Lake- he asked me to make it every day, so it must have been ok. Some things don’t need all the fussy ingredients to be good.
I use canned milk along with regular milk also. As we raise a lot of sweet corn here on our farm I freeze this and there is nothing like it on the market. When I run out of my own I can’t find the little Kernels at all.
So many here seem to dislike the idea of slivers of chopped green pepper added to corn chowder. I know it seems to be non-traditional, my mother never did this until a family friend, who was born about 1880, served us some of her corn chowder in which she had added grilled slivers of chopped pepper. It was a yummy way to add something green to her and our diets. I guess it’s kind of like who likes banana bread with walnuts? Or prefer it without? 🙂
My beloved Mum just simply made made her Corn Chowder with canned or fresh corn ( not creamed), potatoes water milk and butter. My Irish grans recipe. While Massachusetts was always home port we moved every 3 years back and forth to Illinois. The Corn Chowder recipe always remained the same. Sometimes we would have hot dogs with the chowder. On Christmas Eve my sister brother in law and I will have one of my Mum’s recipes to honor her. The Corn Chowder along with Irish beer bread. I miss new England hot dog buns and everything about New England. Wish I could afford to go back and live there. At least I can have the Corn Chowder.
My aunt and uncle moved there from NH. When ever any one in the family would go visit we always brought double crusted lemon pie and “Coffee Time”
milk flavoring. Some thing are just so hard to give up.
For my husband and I, the best corn showder ever is the one in the March/April 2015 issue. Absolutely delicious!!!
Enjoy!!
Louise
Hi Lousise. The Corn & Sweet Potato Chowder recipe from that issue is a staff favorite, too! Here’s the recipe for any folks that are interested: https://newengland.com/today/food/connecticut-corn-sweet-potato-chowder/
I take exception to “potato … chopped into bite-sized chunks”as the large-sized chunks will predominate. Best to dice potatoes into size approximating that of corn kernels, putting everything on an equal footing.
I chose to make the Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder as I was serving it to a vegetarian. It was absolutely amazing! Thanks so much for the recipe!
My Mom made one of the best corn chowders that I continue to make for my family. It is simply, chunks of potato and onion, cream style corn (canned, at least 2), salt
and pepper. No bacon, no peppers etc. In reading the responses, it is the style you were brought up eating. Always delicious
Whoops left out the canned milk and whole milk….that would be rather dry without it
Lived in NH for my first 40 years, now 26 years in KW, FL. Make my corn chowder (NO green peppers) for my party every Christmas with a little Marsala added. Chock full of potatoes, bacon/ham, both canned and creamed corn. Red pepper flakes sound good.
I am originally from Rhode Island but live in Alabama now. My friends down here love corn chowder. I make it for them every winter and we enjoy a time of fun by the fireplace. No green peppers!!
Instead of using plain bacon for the pork fat. I used an organic, thick cut, jalapeño bacon. No black or white pepper required. The chowder has a nice mellow heat to it.
Green peppers? Pepper flakes? Go back to the West you big fakers, because you obviously aren’t from New England! It’s potatoes, ( more than one) onion, creamed corn, regular corn and heavy cream or at least half and half. You have to have cream in it. I garnish mine with crispy bacon which is put on the individual bowls. I serve it with crusty dinner rolls. It’s great to serve after someone comes in from shoveling snow after a big snowstorm.
Yes! This was what the cafeteria ladies made for lunch when we were stationed at DOW AFB then at Bangor Maine. (One of my two adopted home towns) Between it and the New England boiled diner was thEirik other specialty.
Have to agree, this is the same recipe I have, passed down in the family (CT). Just one difference, we also included thinly sliced celery, simmered in real butter, then added the remaining ingredients, salt & pepper to taste. (Crispy bacon as a garnish only, if you wanted to add it to your bowl.) A winter staple!
I use bacon, onion, corn, creamed corn, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and if needed a little whole milk and salt, along with black pepper and potatoes. I have also been known to use frozen diced hash browns or canned diced potatoes. I use some of the bacon fat to sauté the onions and I use the bacon as a garnish. This is something that I always make, especially for Halloween and I bring to my son and dgtr-in-law’s, as they always have people over and everyone that has eaten it, always asks for my recipe. Also, there are a few things that should not go into corn chowder ever. These are the four items that you do not need a roux, green peppers, celery or chicken broth to make corn chowder.
Salt pork, onions, potatoes, whole kernel corn, creamed corn, canned milk and whole milk or cream, salt, pepper and butter. That’s it, if we’re talking New England! No green peppers, not just kernel corn, and NO flour to thicken!!! Supposed to be creamy not thick. Same with Clam Chowder!!
Exactly what I was going to write! Thank you
Exactly
Spent summers in Eastham. Uncle was a fisherman out of Rock Harbor. My Aunt used fat salt pork for her chowders and NEvER bacon or green peppers. Also used diced potatoes, diced onions, milk and cream, pepper, butter and little neck clams for clam chowder. Used canned and creamed corn for her chowders and used the water the potatoes and onions were cooked in for both chowders. Served small round crackers with it. Delicious!!!!!
Spent summers in Eastham. Uncle was a fisherman out of Rock Harbor. My Aunt used fat salt pork for her chowders and NEvER bacon or green peppers. Also used diced potatoes, diced onions, milk and cream, pepper, butter and little neck clams for clam chowder. Used canned and creamed corn for her chowders and used the water the potatoes and onions were cooked in for both chowders. Served small round crackers with it. Delicious!!!!!
Also cubed celery
That’s the way my Dad always made it and I’ve never had better anywhere
Yes, that’s exactly how my Mom always made it and how I make it! Fresh corn and creamed corn- NO green pepper ever- its too strong in flavor and would mask the sweetness of the corn. Thank you!
No green peppers, and I put 6oz. Of ???? broth. In place of water.
Dogwood Canyon Lodge serves the best corn chowder ever – anywhere. Here’s the secret: when taking corn off the cob in the summer, cooked or uncooked, freeze the cobs. At chowder time heat the milk or chicken broth separately for awhile with the corn cobs. The sweet flavor of the cobs permeates the liquid adding extra umph to the chowder. When I tried this, I finally understood why my yellow Lab loved gnawing on the corncobs after dinner.
This is a great tip! Thank you
Thanks for the great tip! I’ll remember this during the summer when the corn harvest is ready. I grew up in New England (MA) and my mom made corn chowder a lot — it was delicious. Now having lived in PA for 48 years I’m remembering some of the meals mom made and want to go back to making them. This one is one of those staple-type New England recipes that I grew up on and love. Thanks, Mona.
Food for thought. I’ll try adding some new ingredients to my chowder but no green peppers.
Omg! No green peppers! No bacon either, some recipes call for it. You want to cring? Where I work they make new England clam chowder with mushrooms! I’m serious. I’ve told them over and over it’s either cream of mushroom soup or clam chowder! You don’t mix them. It’s really gross. Then again the guy who swears it’s new England clam chowder is from Pennsylvania.
If you were a REAL New Englander, you’d make succotash instead of corn chowder (corn, lima beans, milk, a little water or broth, salt pork, butter)
Oh, my goodness! I haven’t heard of succotash in years! I’m 71, and remember my Dad requesting my mother make succotash. Except for my sister, we all loved it! But because of my sister, we didn’t get it as often as we’d like! Nice memory….thanks for providing it for me.
Call it corn chowder, but not New England corn chowder!
When growing I guess we were Poe white folk. Potatoes, onions, corn, milk and butter. No celery, salt pork, bacon, peppers. Succotash as well, just corn and kidney beans. We may have been pore, but we didn’t know it. There was always food on the table. ❤️????
My family loves corn chowder! A good old fashioned meal. My thought is that bacon is a more modern addition as salt pork is now harder to find and very expensive. My family never bought bacon because that was too expensive in the 1940’s and 50’s. Also, you couldn’t get peppers of any kind in the winter. Another favorite was succotash. Mom made it with shell beans. Enjoy your meal however you make it!