Stick with Maine chowder

A bowl of fish chowder

— Photo by Nate Steiner

“Poems have been written about bouillabaise; but I have tried it again and again in the world’s leading bouillabaise centers, and, on the words of a dispassionate reporter, it’s not to be compared with a Maine cunner, cod, or haddock chowder made with salt pork and common crackers.’’

— Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957), novelist and journalist, in Trending into Maine (1938)

The chowder mandate for marriage

Fish chowder

“Every New England girl who lived within the sound of the sea, four or five generations ago, counted a chowder kettle as an essential part of her “setting out.’’ When a bride left the family homestead, she carried with her a huge iron pot in which to make the hearty dish of fish, swimming in rich broth flavored with salt pork and onions.’’ 

-- Ella Shannon Bowles and Dorothy S. Towle, in their Secrets of New England Cooking (1947)