Chunky. Casual. Comfortable.

Let’s talk chowder. While it’s often clammy and most times creamy (at least north of Rhode Island), a homemade chowder simply must contain bite-sized chunks of protein and/or vegetables; get served casually from the cast iron pot it was made in; and be comforting to your soul.

The word “chowder” is a corruption of the French “chaudière,” loosely translated in English as “cauldron.” Food historians say chowder, the hearty meal that is more satisfying for an eater than soup and less time consuming for a cook than a stew, likely originated among Breton fishermen who brought the custom of making it to Newfoundland, from where it migrated south to supper tables in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England.

“For me, a chowder separates itself from other soups by its mouthfeel,” says Saco-based chef, food photographer and cookbook author Derek Bissonnette. Several bite-sized ingredients sitting on your soupspoon simultaneously, enveloped in a viscous broth makes a chowder in Bissonnette’s book. Literally. His 2018 book, published by Kennebunkport’s Cider Mill Press, is called “Soup: The Ultimate Book of Soups and Stews.”

Bissonette says that if a cook understands how the basic elements of chowder – the broth, the hero ingredient, the well-diced vegetables and the thickening agent – are prepared and get added to the cauldron, they can likely make a good one from whatever is on hand at home.

The Broth

A flavorful broth is key to any chowder’s success. As an example, Bissonnette points to his method for clam chowder. He steams 5 pounds of soft-shelled clams in 2 cups of wine and 1 cup of chopped onions. He removes the opened clams, strains the liquid, and uses it as the broth for the chowder. “Starting with something flavorful and building more flavor into it, makes a big difference in the final dish,” he says.

Maine seaweed dashi deepens the seafood flavor in a fish chowder or adds umami to a vegetarian one. Simmer corn cobs with thyme for 20 minutes and the strained liquid will add sweetness to a lobster chowder and depth to a corn one. Canned chicken stock steeped with the peels of frozen shrimp makes a broth well suited for a seafood or chicken chowder. Canned vegetable broth is more interesting if it’s spent a little time getting to know a dried chipotle pepper before being introduced to sweet potatoes in a chowder.

Regardless of how you flavor your broth, count on 1 cup per chowder eater.

The Star

Choose an ingredient in your cupboard, fridge or freezer that can carry the show. The strong flavor and unique texture of clams – whether canned, or whole or chopped fresh – set a strong example for what you’re looking for in a star. Anchor your chowder with a can of smoked mussels; a chopped, roasted head of cauliflower; a spicy cured Chorizo sausage sliced into bite-sized rounds; a batch of previously cooked chickpeas tossed in curry spices; or a bag of corn kernels shaved from last summer’s cobs and put up in the freezer, to name just a few options.

It’s best to cook star ingredients ahead, as cooking them in the pot with the ensemble for a long period of time can cause them to lose their distinctive look, feel and taste. Cut canned, cured, steamed and roasted main ingredients into bite-sized pieces and add them to the pot at the tail end of the cooking process to warm through. An exception to this rule of thumb is fresh seafood like flaky white fish, scallops and shrimp. Cut these, while still raw, into bite-sized pieces and lower them into the pot of hot chowder to gently cook, until they are opaque, in the residual heat in the covered pot just after you’ve taken it off the heat.

Figure on 1/4 cup of your star ingredient per person.

The Chunk

A small dice will do for any aromatic vegetable in your chowder – carrots or parsnips, onions or shallots, celery or fennel. Classically defined as being 1/4-inch squares, these little nuggets are chopped finer than other vegetables in the pot so they won’t be crunchy when the chowder is fully cooked. To help ensure the aromatics are very tender, before adding any broth to the pot, sweat them gently in a bit of fat – bacon grease, olive oil and butter are all good options – for at least five minutes over low heat.

Dice aromatics at a rate of 1/4 cup per person you plan to serve.

Potatoes, which most, but not all chowder have in common, need to be cut into a medium dice, classically defined as 1/2-inch squares. The potatoes don’t have to be peeled (the skins add texture, color, nutrients and a bit of protection against whole chunks dissolving into the broth), but they do need to a consistent size to ensure even cooking. All types of potatoes will work in a chowder. Waxy ones, like Red Bliss, or all-purpose ones, like Yukon golds, hold their shape better; drier ones, like russets, tend to dissolve into the broth a bit more; and sweet ones add color and, it goes without saying, sweetness.

Dice potatoes at a rate of 1/2 cup per person you plan to serve.

The Thickener

There are two primary ways to thicken a chowder. The first takes patience and a bit of cream and the second calls for flour.

Bissonnette is a patient man and reduces his broth before adding it to the chowder pot. If you want to run with this thickening method, for every person you want to serve the finished chowder to, add 2 cups of flavored broth to a saucepan and simmer it down to 1 cup before adding it to the sweated aromatics in the pot. You then cook the potatoes in this reduced broth, a process that leaches starch into the liquid, and finish the chowder with heavy cream.

If you are not patient, after sweating the vegetables in fat, you can sprinkle flour over them and stir. The flour combines with the fat to make a roux that will then thicken any liquid you stir into the pot. How much flour depends both on the amount of fat you’ve used to sweat the vegetables and how much liquid you are adding. The fat and flour amounts should be equal by weight. That’s easy to measure if you have a kitchen scale. If you don’t, a general rule of thumb is that for every 2 tablespoons of fat, sprinkle in a scant 1/4 cup of flour. That amount will thicken 4 cups of liquid. The potatoes get cooked in the thickened broth.

For a gluten-free thickener, add cornstarch to the chowder at the very end of the cooking process. Whisk 4 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1 cup of room temperature broth to form a slurry. This amount of slurry will thicken 4 cups of broth, or 8 cups of fully loaded chowder. Stir the combination into the chowder once the other ingredients are cooked. Bring the chowder to a boil and cook it for about a minute to thicken.

If you do not have patience, flour or cornstarch, soak old bread or saltines in broth, puree the mixture and stir it into the chowder with your star ingredients.

The process in a clam shell

Making chowder presents all manner of choice based on your taste and larder. But if you follow the general flow outlined here…

Slowly sweat aromatics in fat.

Choose a thickening agent.

Add flavorful broth.

Cook uniformly diced potatoes in the broth.

Add well-prepped hero ingredients,

you should land on a custom-made chowder that fills your bowls, fits your budget and suits your taste.

The Extras

With a little extra something, there are myriad ways to make basic chowder sing, including:

Chopped fresh parsley or thyme, crispy bacon bits or sausage crumble, or smoky dulse flakes liven up the white landscape of a clam chowder.

Diced roasted red peppers or a bit of tomato paste will sweeten a spicy chowder.

Adding huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn and is considered a delicacy in Mexico, adds a little funk to corn chowder. You can find it frozen or in cans in most Mexican grocery stores.

A squeeze of lemon juice will brighten up flat-tasting Manhattan chowder. (Take that, Manhattan chowder!)

Home-made oyster crackers

Christine Burns Rudalevige is a food writer, recipe developer, tester and cooking teacher in Brunswick, and the author of “Green Plate Special,” a cookbook from Islandport Press based on these columns. She can be contacted at: cburns1227@gmail.com

Hot Smoked Fish and Sweet Potato Chowder

Hot-smoked fatty fish — salmon, bluefish or trout — gives this chowder a meaty bite. The bacon garnish helps, too. The broth is spicy because it’s flavored with a dried chipotle chili. If you don’t have one, add 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes.

Serves 4

8 cups seafood broth
1 dried chipotle pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 slices thick, smoky bacon, small dice
1 medium onion, small dice
1 carrot, small dice
½ fennel bulb, small dice
1 cup diced sweet potatoes, medium dice
1 cup diced Yukon gold potato, medium dice
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces hot smoked fish, flaked
1/4 cup small diced roasted red pepper
Salt

Combine the broth and chipotle in a medium saucepan and place over medium high heat. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat and compost the chili. Set the broth aside.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon bits to a repurposed, flattened paper bag to drain.

Add the onions, carrots and fennel to the fat remaining in the pot. Cook the vegetables gently until softened, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the reserved broth and the potatoes. Bring the chowder to a boil, reduce heat so the mixture simmers and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the cream, flaked fish and roasted red pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then immediately turn off the heat.

Season with salt to taste. Serve hot, garnished with the reserved bacon bits.

Roasted Cauliflower Chowder

I like to use white or sharp cheddar.

Serves 4

4 cups roughly chopped cauliflower
6 cloves peeled garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1 medium onion, diced small
1 carrot, diced small
½ fennel bulb, diced small
2 teaspoons smoked dulse flakes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 ¼ cups whole milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Toss the cauliflower and garlic cloves with 1 tablespoon olive oil and spread on a large baking sheet. Season with salt and black pepper. Roast the cauliflower until it’s tender and golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, fennel and dulse. Cook the vegetables gently until softened, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finely chop the reserved roasted garlic and add it to the pot. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the broth. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the milk and slowly add the shredded cheese, whisking constantly. Add the roasted cauliflower and fresh thyme and cook until the cauliflower is heated through. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve hot.

Chowder Crackers

This recipe is adapted from Saco-based chef, food photographer and cookbook author Derek Bissonnette’s 2018 book, “Soup: The Ultimate Book of Soups and Stews.” They are wonderful plain, but you can personalize them by adding a sprinkle of dried herbs or spices to the dough that match the flavor profile of the chowder you’re serving.

Makes about 60 small crackers

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons butter, diced small

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the butter and use your fingers to work it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles course meal. Add 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cold water and mix gently until the mixture forms a dough. Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl and refrigerate it for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface to a ¼-inch thickness. Cut the dough into ½-inch diamonds and transfer to silicone-lined baking sheet. Bake the crackers until they are just golden around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool them on a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.

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