Gloucester “Old Salt” Fish Chowder
This “old-salt” fish chowder recipe, thick with fish, potatoes, and bacon, is adapted from a 1976 Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives cookbook.
By Yankee Magazine|Apr 18 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanThis old-fashioned fish chowder recipe, thick with fish, potatoes, and bacon, is adapted from the 1976 book The Taste of Gloucester: A Fisherman’s Wife Cooks.
Yield:
6 to 8 servingsIngredients
5 thick bacon slices, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt, plus extra to taste
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups water
3 medium-size ‘Yukon Gold’ potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup cream
1-3/4 cups milk
1-3/4-2 pounds white fish, such as hake or pollock, cut into 1-inch chunks
Garnishes: minced fresh chives, chopped bacon
Instructions
In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp and browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove all but 3 tablespoons fat from pot. Remove half the bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving the remaining bacon in pot.
Reduce heat to medium-low, and add onion, salt, and pepper. Cook until onion pieces are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
Add flour and stir.
Add water, whisking as you go; the flour will dissolve and the mixture will thicken a bit.
Add potatoes and cream, increase heat to medium, cover pot, and simmer until potatoes are barely tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and add milk.
Add fish and cook until opaque, about 5 minutes.
Serve fish chowder sprinkled with chives and remaining bacon.
An easy recipe– the slow cooking is really important in bringing out the flavors of the ingredients, since the recipe calls for so few. I found that my potatoes needed even longer to cook than the recipe recommends (much longer than 6-8 mins), and I might use more cream and less milk next time (the broth had great flavor but was a bit thin). Overall, though, this was a great chowder recipe that is basically foolproof.
made this recipe tonight for dinner. I used a bit more bacon and used skim milk instead of whole(my family likes skim) plus I put more milk in because I like my chowder more “soupy” than traditional chowder. I loved it that way! I would agree with the other review that the potatoes need more cooking time than is indicated. Or, the pieces need to be cut smaller.
Hi,
Saw this recipe yesterday and it was a cool, cloudy day in The Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, on the Canadian Border, so I went to Shaw’s and purchased the fish (I used Cod, which was delicious) I used light cream and whole milk. Found it to be “just right” in consistency. Added a little onion powder for a more robust flavor? Used our own lovely fingerling potatoes. Next time, maybe a few less, as my Husband complained there were “too many” ? He complains about most anything so don’t feel bad. As older citizens, our taste buds are not what they should be, so maybe a little garlic next time with the onion! Many thanks for sharing the grand recipe. Sincerely, Karen
PS: LOVE Yankee Magazine! Even send it as a gift to a former Vermonter, now transplanted to N.C.
You must live close to Newport. Shaws is in Derby.
I have made this a number of times and love it. It is wonderful on a cold winters day like we have been having. Wonderful!
Skim milk in chowder? You might as well put tomatoes in it.
tryed this recipe, first time chowder a bit thin for my liking of a chowder. Potatos needed a bit longer to cook still a bit hard. Second time I made this used it as a base for a Seafood chowder, I changed the milk to half and half, left all other items as is, then added 1 # haddock, 1/2 # shrimp, and 1/2 # bay scallops , made for a great chowder.
Ron is right on. A good fish chowder requires onion, potato, salt pork, a good fish stock, and definitely more than one variety of fish. One of them should be cod, haddock or flounder, which will basically break down and disappear while the chowder is in the making. The others, I use two, will be varieties which will hang in there through the process. Try halibut chunks and shrimp, or scallops. The chowder will be lots more interesting. (A dash or two of tabasco also helps!)
This is exactly how my Mom who grew up in northern Maine used to make fish chowder. Very authentic and delicious, thank you!
This recipe reminds me of the lovely fish chowder we used to enjoy at a small restaurant in Maine. The chowder was part of the soup/salad bar included with every entrée. Aw gee, forget the entrée, we could have made a meal on the chowder and crackers alone. I’m glad it is so easy to make, because we love it all year long. Like Ron, I agree that adding shrimp and/or scallops makes a good chowder even better!
Thank you all who contributed to this, it is appreciated!
I am thrilled that I found this recipe! My mother made fish chowder for us as children almost every Friday. I have not made it in several years and I am so happy to finally have the recipe for the way she made it. I will make this ASAP to bring back the wonderful memories of her fish chowder.
I’m a transplanted ‘YANKEE’ and lived in MAINE in a house with an ‘high A lined attached roof to it. I recall my Mother soaking the COD in salt water overnight and the next day my Dad hanging it in the barn to dry out until fall when we over night soaked it again , added oleo and fried salt pork , onions and MAINE potatoes, that we grew! NO comparison to what we receive when we eat out at ‘Seafood’ restaurants here in Florida! MAINER TRANSPLANTED!
As a former Vermonter (live in NY, but ALWAYS be a Vermonter!!) I grew up on the traditional New England recipes. One of my favorites and old standbys is CORN CHOWDER! I use LOTS of bacon, and onion, cream corn and the water I cook the potatoes, onion and bacon in and add evaporated milk. If it needs more broth I add cream or half and half. We prefer it THICK and CREAMY, and its BETTER the next day — after the flavors have time to settle together! Served with my grammas Johnny cake! mmmmm — company here from England never heard of it, but LOVED it!! We Enjoy all the old traditional recipes, boiled dinner, red flannel hash, PB & fluff sandwiches & so many more!!! Love and enjoy YANKEE Magazine!
This is not a fish chowda that you would find in peoples home in Gloucesta.
It’s from a cookbook that just was just not knowledgeable about how people cooked
No bacon, no cream, no flour, salt from the shaker, pepper from the shaker, no water, just milk, fish would be haddock or cod, any potatoes on hand
Salt Pork, cut up fine, in pan, render and then saute onion, cut-up potato into to chucks or cubes, sweat them, add fish and some milk (some clam broth, if you have it) simmer until potatoes are done.
If need quicker, boil the potatoes separately and the add them to the chowda.
Some butter and saltines
Same for corn chowda, clam chowda, just don’t use the fish
Glousta people were/are hard workers and didn’t make much money so being thrifty was a must
This was food of the people
Have to agree with you here – the New Englanders were poor, most had no butter or cream, and chowdahs were milk (unlike the Cream o’Wheat style served on Cape Cod), onion and fish; mild flavored nirvana in a steaming bowl. If we had butter, we floated a little on top. Salt pork got the whole thing started. The simplicity (and common crackers) made it the best!
I wonder how many realize milk came with the cream. It was not separated as today. From the cream you made your own butter if you let fresh milk sit the cream floats to the top.
That’s how we always got pur milk back I. The day. We woild separate out the cream, and some woild always remain I mthe milk, but it made it rich as I recall. Went through a powdered milk phase, eyuck! Znd then goat’s milk, double eyuck! Once a week,we’d go on our milk runs. Was a good time as a family.
Grew up in Waterboro, ME. We were a 6 or more generation Maine family. My mum’s recipe was a lot like this, but she died and took her exact recipe with her. Bacon and MAINE potatoes are a must tho.
My mother’s side of the family were Brits who settled in New England in the late 19th Century. She was born and grew up in Fall River, MA, in the 1930s. Very seldom was bacon an ingredient in any of her New England recipes, and certainly not in the fish chowder. The only meats were minced cod and clams. She used whole kernel corn, as well, with lots of salted butter. Adding bacon sounds like one of those bored-housewife novelty recipes from McCall’s Magazine in the 1960s or 1970s.
When are you going to print some good, old Nova Scotia fish receipes. Lots of Nova Scotians here in Massachusetts.
I would love them too, recipes from Nova Scotia !!
Bacon???Nay, we always used salt pork, rendered, remove cracklins, saute onions in pork fat, add potatoes water seasoning cook slowly so that some of the potatoes thicken the broth…etc
As others have said this recipe is not authentic to the Gloucester fishermen or their wives’ recipes from the the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Bacon was not simply not used in chowder back then, period. It was salt pork. And the chowder also would include any and all other seafood from the day’s catch like clams, mussels or other white fish. They would always include lots of potatoes to make the chowder “stretch” and to be more filling for the hard working men and women of the town. this recipe was obviously from some mid 1970’s spoiled woman that likely bought all of the ingredients from the local grocery store, including the seafood!
The taste of bacon is not traditional in chowder . Salt pork is the best rendered fat as it allows the fish flavor to stand out and not the bacon. Save it for eggs.
Search the New England Chowder Compendium @the U Mass Library site for authentic chowders thru the generations.
We always used salt pork. Diced it fine, then Rendered it, scooping out the cracklings. Fried the onions in the fat from the salt pork, then drained off any fat left. Added a little water then cooked the potatoes before adding hassock or cod. Then added milk and to make it a bit creamier, added evaporated milk. Wasn’t complete til we added those common crackers that are so hard to find now. None of that fish chowder in thick cream sauce that seems to be served now.
My mother took her recipe with her also, my sisters wish they had it too. I do remember her using salt pork and dried salted cod that came in small boxes. She grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts and many in her family were fishermen and clam harvesters so I think it was a family recipe. I doubt that she used any potato other than Maine potatoes also.
The operative word is adapted. No bacon, yes salt pork. No flour either.
exactly! salt pork and russet (starchy)potatoes, absolutely no flour!
This recipe sounds great going to give give it a shot my grandmother was from Poland her fish chowder was fantastic I was small when she past away so I never had the chance to learn it so this is great information from everyone thanks stay safe the pandemic is spanning the globe.
Best when using evaporated milk
Agree with many others, salt pork a must, never bacon. No flour either, my mom and aunt made great fish chowder, never with flour. A pat or two of butter finishes it nicely.
The cream and milk will thicken it without flour and not lose taste , correct ?
While I agree with the many comments on here that salt pork should be used first, I made it with bacon the first time, and all that my friends/family said was “make it again”! I’m going to use the salt port, but heck if I’m going to leave the bacon out as a garnish. Traditional or not, people LOVE bacon! And, I used fresh, tick cod from Bar Harbor Seafood down here in Orlando (I’m from NE) where I now live.
ADAPTED FROM the original recipe, folks! Thank you to Yankee Magazine for this “adaptation”. I tried it at a restaurant in Ipswich on vacation last year and made it last night using this recipe. It was a cold day and, even if I wanted to brave the snow-covered streets to try and find salt pork in southwestern PA, I doubt I’d have found it. This is a great-tasting chowder, easily put together with what I had on hand. The flour thickened the chowder nicely without the need to add a lot of cream and because, I cut those calories, I stirred in a couple of pats of butter before serving. Delicious!!