Down Home Clam Chowder

 

  • 4 (6 1/2 oz.) cans minced clams with juice
  • ½ pound bacon, diced
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 6 to 8 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 3 cups fish stock or water
  • 3 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • 4 cups cream or milk
  • 4 tbsp. cornstarch
  • Fresh parsley, chopped

Cut clams into bite-size pieces.
In skillet sauté bacon and onion until golden brown and then drain.
Put bacon and clams into slow cooker.
Add potatoes, stock, salt and pepper.
Cook on high for 3-4 hours or until potatoes are tender.
During the last hour of cooking combine 1 cup cream or milk with cornstarch.
Add cornstarch mixture and remaining milk to slow cooker and mix well.
Continuing cooking for 1 hour or until heated through. Garnish with parsley to serve

Of Soup and Love...

  • Old Spanish proverb: "Of soup and love, the first is best!"
  • Soup can be traced back to almost 6000 BC. The first recorded soup was said to be made from hippopotamus and the hearts of five sparrows.
  • Despite it's French name, vichyssoise (cold potato soup) was first prepared in New York City at the Ritz Carlton Hotel (albeit by French Chef Lois Diat who was born near Vichy, France).
  • The word soup is said to come from the word "sop", which was said to be a stewlike dish where bread was used for sopping up the liquid.
  • Dr. John T. Torrance invented the first condensed soup in 1897 while working as a chemist for the Campbell Soup Company.