CLAM CHOWDER
Try out salt pork. Take out the scraps. Cut up onions and fry them in the pork fat until they are a golden brown. Open clams and save all the clam water. (Most chefs steam the clams first because they are so much easier to handle, but if you want the real flavor you want to shell the clams, wash the meat over carefully and let the clam water settle and dip it out instead of pouring it into your kettle so as to leave out the sand.)
Add to the onions enough hot water to cover them, put in clam water and the bellies of the clams. Cook until the bellies of the clams have practically disappeared (about two hours). Then add whatever more hot water is necessary, add the rest of your clam meat, after having first cut off the black end of the head, and run the meat through the coarsest cutting disk of your meat grinder. Cook until clams are very nearly done and then add your sliced white potato. Cook again until the potatoes are done. Then add whatever milk you put in and let it come to a boil. Put into the chowder what we call Boston cracker. They are shaped like a water cracker only they are soft. Split them in halves. These will soften up immediately and you can then serve your chowder.
Do not use any flour for thickening. If the chowder is prepared and the bellies of the clams cooked as above, this will make the broth thicken up.