Watch 4 Levels | 4 Levels of Chowder: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious Video | CNE | Epicurious.com

[crunching]

[pouring liquid]

[placing crackers down]

[upbeat beat]

Hi, I’m Shariff, and I’m a level one chef.

I’m Julie, and I’m a level two chef.

I’m Frank, I’m a chef instructor

at the Institute of Culinary Education,

and I’ve been a professional chef for 25 years.

[upbeat beat]

The main ingredient in my chowder is corn.

This is for people who love corn, and chowder.

I love corn on the cob, so why not combine the two

and let’s make a nice, creamy corn chowder.

I am going to make clam chowder.

However, I’m gonna make a kind of clam chowder

I’ve never made before called Manhattan clam chowder.

Let’s find out how to make Manhattan clam chowder.

Today we’re gonna make a crab chowder

with homemade crackers.

And I think that it’s a perfect seafood to put in chowder.

Crab is kinda sweet, and it has this great flakiness to it

that is perfect for this soup.

[upbeat beat]

[extending pointer]

[upbeat melody]

Okay, so now we are going to peel this corn.

I don’t peel corn often.

[peeling corn]

First thing we need to do is prepare our fresh clams.

And I’ve had them soaking in a bowl of water.

There’s a lot of grit, and sand,

and we wanna get all of that out.

Takes a minute or two, and I’m talking Jamaican minutes,

so maybe 20, 25 minutes.

Not surprisingly for my crab chowder

the main ingredient is crabs.

And the crabs I have in front of me are fresh crabs.

And I’m gonna used these for my stock.

In order to get the best crab, you have to buy them live,

and you have to kill them, and clean them yourself.

Because if they’re dead when you get them,

you don’t know how long they’ve been dead

and they’re not good to eat.

These crabs are actually sacrificial crabs.

They’re not really big,

and they don’t have a ton of meat on them.

But I am gonna use them to flavor my stock.

And a stock is a flavor base for soups of all types.

All right, let’s cut this corn up.

Oh okay, it’s not that hard.

A little more work than canned corn,

but you want your chowder to be perfect.

[cutting corn]

Gonna save these, we’re gonna use these later on.

Voila, and look at all this mess down in here.

Aside from the crabs and the crab shells,

I have some jumbo lump crab meat.

And the jumbo lump is what’s gonna be the texture

in the soup and basically the main body of the soup.

So what we’re gonna do next is chop up all of our crabs

so we can get a lot of surface area,

and get as much flavor as we can out of these crabs.

And now I’m gonna get started on my other ingredients.

We are gonna get this stuff diced and chopped up.

When I make stock,

and this is gonna drive a lot of people crazy.

You can put skins in stock.

People are gonna clutch their pearls about this,

but this is how I was taught, and I went to a decent school.

Same thing with the garlic,

we’re just gonna kinda give that a whack.

[pounding garlic]

And for the celery as well.

Now let’s cut the vegetables for the garnish,

and basically the stuff that’s gonna float around

in the soup.

We’ll start with the–

[All] Celery.

On your ribs of celery,

sometimes strings would hang from your mouth.

[chopping celery]

Celery and the thyme is gonna add some nice flavor to it.

Just a regular joe nice–

[All] Onion.

[Julie] We’re gonna dice up.

I don’t know if there’s a special way

this should be cut up,

but I’m just doing it to my liking.

[chopping carrot]

At the end of the day,

a chowder is kind of a rustic soup anyway,

so if it’s not perfect, don’t worry about it.

You know, I’ve always gotta have some kind of pepper

but today it’s not scotch bonnet.

So we’re gonna cut the stems off our flat leaf parsley.

We’re gonna roughly chop our parsley.

Our potatoes.

So we gotta peel these.

Not chowder without potatoes,

whether it’s red or white.

I have a red potato here.

You want starchy potatoes.

That’s what cooking is right?

Preference.

And with potatoes for this,

there’ll be some chunks that are a little bit larger,

and some that are a little smaller.

And the smaller ones’ll kind of melt away

and give our soup some thickening power.

Because traditionally chowder

is thickened with potatoes and crackers.

In half, in half, in half, and then down.

See, look at that.

Poy-fect.

I want it to have a little garlic background.

I’m gonna give this a very rough chop.

And next we’re gonna do the bacon.

I like maple, you can use smoked,

whatever kind of bacon is good for you.

And I’m just gonna cut this into something

that I like to call lardon,

which are just big kinda thick chunks of bacon,

just like that.

So that’s what I’m looking for.

It’s time to start cooking, finally.

All right, it’s time to start cooking.

I have my corn cobs here in the pot.

I’m gonna add in my chicken stock now,

and allow them to infuse into the corn cobs.

First thing we wanna do with our stock

is to get our crabs in there.

And we’re gonna put a little fat in there first

just to start, we got our clarified butter.

It has a nice buttery flavor,

but it doesn’t have any of the components

in it that make butter burn at high temperatures.

Once our butter is melted, we’re gonna add our crab,

but I don’t really wanna brown anything here.

I’m just gonna sweat it out.

And sweating is cooking without color.

[pan sizzling]

And once our shells start to turn color

I’m gonna add the onions, and the garlic, and the celery.

My crabs and my vegetables are all sweated out,

and I’m gonna deglaze with some dry sherry.

And what that’s gonna do is it’s gonna stop

the crabs from cooking on the bottom.

And when we deglaze we want to cook all the alcohol out.

And usually that means you’re gonna cook the sherry

down by half.

So we wait for that.

And I’m gonna boil corn cobs with the chicken stock

for about 10 minutes,

’cause it’s corn chowder after all, isn’t it?

And you see, I didn’t chop up tomatoes.

I’m using diced canned tomatoes

as opposed to fresh tomatoes because they’ve been sitting,

and packed, and diced in their own juice,

and it gives us the flavor punch

that fresh tomatoes just really can’t do.

I don’t smell any more alcohol it’s time to add the water.

And usually I wanna start with about six quarts of water.

Our stock has started to simmer.

We’ll add our herbs, a little bit of thyme.

This is a big bay leaf,

I’m gonna only put about half of it in,

and a nice kinda bunch of parsley.

Our crab stock has been cooking for about 35, 40 minutes,

I’m gonna give it a taste.

This is how we determine everything in the kitchen.

We taste.

[upbeat music]

Nice, it has a really nice crab flavor,

and we’re just gonna pour it over.

[pouring stock]

And that’s it, that’s our stock.

[upbeat music]

The first thing we’re gonna do is release some grease

as I call it, by using our–

[All] Bacon.

I’m gonna put a little bit of my whole butter in there.

And I’m using whole butter for the flavor here.

And I’m not necessarily looking for this bacon

to get too brown or dark.

I just wanna render some of the fat out.

I feel like it compliments the crab.

That it adds that good flavor to it.

As you can see that nice crispy bacon,

that’s how you want it.

Now what you wanna do is get a nice coating

of fat in which you can cook your veggies.

My bacon’s rendered out,

I’m gonna add my onions and celery now.

I know you guys can’t smell this,

but the bacon grease with the onion and the celery,

it just smells so good.

And we haven’t even finished yet.

Add my butter, and my garlic.

Gonna add my thyme now.

I’m gonna put in onion,

and mix everything, don’t just dump everything in at once.

Then you’re gonna mix in your celery.

Red peppers.

Now that you’ve put all of these things in here

your bacon will not get hard and crispy,

it’ll just continue to cook and release its flavors.

As a professional cook, we tend to season

throughout the process of cooking.

A little here, a little there.

If you just season at the end,

your product is gonna be salty.

But if you season throughout the process,

you get a better kinda balance of flavors,

it’s not gonna be salty.

I think I can add the garlic now too.

Vegetables are sweated out.

I have a little more sherry.

It’s just slowing the cooking down,

giving us a little more of that base flavor in our soup.

So the last thing we’re gonna add are our diced–

[Both] Potatoes.

And I’m just gonna take the potatoes out of the water,

drop them all in.

But the vegetables at the end of the day

are what we’re gonna thicken this soup with.

I’m gonna add my flour now,

and this is gonna help to thicken your chowder.

I can add my corn, the main ingredient.

We’re gonna add to the potatoes, the tomatoes.

And of course our chicken stock.

I’m gonna let this simmer for about 15 minutes.

Maybe I’ll add a little salt and pepper to it.

Remember that clam juice in the bottle?

We’re gonna add two cups,

and we’re going to let this now meld,

so that the flavors can cohere

and create a beautiful resting place for our clam.

Look at that.

Kinda looks like the Italian flag.

And we’re gonna add our stock.

[pouring stock]

What we’re gonna do now

is you’re gonna let this come to a boil.

Once it comes to a boil, we’ll lower it to a simmer,

and then we’ll cook it until our potatoes are soft,

or starting to fall apart a little.

A lot of times with white soups

or soups that have cream in ’em,

chefs don’t like use black pepper.

But it’s actually traditional

with a chowder to use black pepper.

And I like black pepper much more than I like white pepper.

It’s thickenin’ up pretty quickly.

So now I’m gonna go ahead and chop up my bacon,

while this simmers a little longer.

It really completes the corn chowder.

All right, let’s take a peek.

I have a feeling it’s almost clam time.

Mm, yeah.

Now we’re going to put in our fresh clams.

And we’re simply going to drop them in,

unlike eggs you can put ’em in one basket.

And let this simmer again.

And the way we’re gonna know it’s done

is our clams should be open like a flower.

The chowder has been cooking for about 20 to 25 minutes.

I want the potatoes to start to fall apart.

There’s a few pieces in there

that the edges are starting to get a little rough.

I want some of the potatoes to stay whole,

but I want some of the potatoes to fall apart.

Because what we’re gonna do next is we’re gonna puree

about half of the soup.

But I’m gonna be really careful not to get any of the bacon.

Classically, chowder is thickened

with potatoes and the crackers.

One thing you have to be concerned about

when you have hot soup in a blender

is that once you turn on

you’re gonna get this big blast of steam,

and everything will shoot everywhere.

So you wanna start everything really slow.

I also put a towel on top.

We’ve got a nice kind of smooth texture.

And this goes right back in.

Our soup was a little dark,

and now it’s gone a little lighter,

and that’s what we’re looking for.

All right, this has been simmering for 15 minutes.

So now let’s add our milk, and our bacon,

and then we will let it simmer

for another 20 minutes, and then it’ll be done.

Half of the soup’s pureed,

next thing we’re gonna do is lower the heat,

and then I’m gonna add my cream.

I’m just gonna add the cream

to give this a more luxurious flavor.

So we’re gonna season this up.

Fair amount of black pepper.

You gotta be really sure about the salt.

The right amount of salt could be one little grain of salt.

Guys, I think we’re ready.

Let’s see, wow.

Our clams are open.

That means we’re ready.

So I think what I’m gonna do is chop them

before we put them back in the chowder.

Just keep one or two in the shell

because it makes a really nice presentation.

Now with the crab, we went to the trouble

of getting really nice jumbo lump.

It’s about a pound and a half.

Just warm it through, and I’m gonna call it done.

Look at that, crab chowder, delish.

Dump it right back in the pot.

A little bit of salt, some pepper, a bit of parsley.

Simmer it up a little bit.

You can’t have chowder without crackers.

I mean, come on, it just wouldn’t be right.

I decided to go with the classic saltine cracker.

I love them.

When I was growing up

they were always just called oyster crackers,

but now they’re called soup and oyster crackers.

I’m gonna make my own.

In the food processor we have the flour,

the baking powder, the salt, the sugar,

both herbs, Italian flat leaf parsley, thyme,

and some lard.

[food processor running]

That looks pretty good to me.

Then we’re gonna take some of that cold water

and pour it in until it forms a ball.

[food processor running]

Okay.

I take this, I’m gonna just put it on my board.

I have a little bench flour in case it’s sticking.

I’m not gonna knead it a lot

because I want the crackers to be flaky and kinda puffy.

We’re gonna put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes,

let it rest.

Our dough is rested, let’s roll it out.

Basically what we’re gonna do is roll this out

to the thickness that we want,

and then cut it into little round crackers.

So I’m looking for about a quarter of an inch, fairly small.

And all I do is cut them,

and I’m gonna put ’em on to a parchment lined tray.

We’ll get a little rise from these,

because it has the baking powder in there.

It also has some of that lard in there,

so we’ll get a little puff from it, which is nice.

Crackers are cooked.

If you look at them, they’re really nice.

They have a little bit of browning on them.

They’ve puffed up just a little bit.

Here’s my method.

I like them whole.

Yeah I like to dip my crackers in the soup.

I know some people like to crush them up.

Whole crackers, one cracker with each spoonful of chowder.

Mm, perfect.

I like to take my crackers,

crumble them lightly so that it absorbs some of the soup.

But if you don’t like it that way

put ’em on the side, float ’em in whole.

It’s your soup, you enjoy it,

but I’m gonna do it my way and the way I like it.

Let’s plate it up.

All right, let’s get this in a bowl

so that we can taste it.

I have to have my crackers on the side.

All we have left is the eating,

and make this look pretty before we demolish it.

We garnish with a little fresh parsley.

Our last final touch to make things really nice

is you put a clam in your bowl.

And that my friends is Manhattan clam chowder.

If you put hot soup in a cold bowl,

it gets cold really quick.

So I like to warm my bowl up a little, right?

150 degree oven,

and try and get a little bit of everything in there.

And then you just take your crackers,

now however you want it,

I’m just gonna break my crackers up a little

and sprinkle them about.

A little bit of fresh cracked black pepper.

This is my corn chowder.

[pounding]

This is my Manhattan clam chowder, so excited.

[pounding]

And that is my chowder.

[pounding]

[upbeat music]

Okay, now to the most exciting part,

we get to taste this.

Look at it, just look at it.

Look how beautiful it is.

Beautiful big chunks of crab, not too thick.

[eating]

[upbeat music]

[All] Mm.

Delicious.

See, this is how chowder is supposed to be.

Mm.

Yeah.

I think it’s amazing.

I think that anyone you put this in front of

will be your best friend immediately.

Try this, make this at home.

I’m telling you, you’ll be thanking me.

[pounding]

Chowder is a hearty soup from North America.

that is delicious and satiating.

It’s typically made from seafood, but it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

[pounding]

Shariff made his grandma’s sweet corn chowder.

Corn is native to the Americas,

and there are two main types.

Dent corn which has an indentation and is harvested in fall,

is used as a grain to make corn flour,

and sweet corn which is the familiar golden

or white vegetable that Shariff used in his chowder.

Very picky about my chowder too.

When corn is heated, volatile sulfur molecules

like dimethyl sulfide are expressed.

This is a flavor molecule that’s also found

in the aroma of cooked milk and shellfish,

which is why corn makes a fabulous chowder.

It’s gotta have the right flavor.

Julie made clam chowder

with small sweet cherry stone clams.

Clams are bivalves with two hard shells

and one hinge called the adductor muscle

that controls the opening and closing of the two shells.

Julie’s clams were live and soaked in cold salt water

because they naturally siphoned out residual sand and grits

still inside the shells

which you don’t want in your chowder.

Who wants sand in their teeth?

Frank made crab chowder from white jumbo lump crab meat,

which comes from the two large muscles

that are connected to the crab’s swimming legs.

Crab meat gets its flavor from high concentrations

of free amino acids, particularly glycine,

which has a sweet taste and sugars in their muscle tissue.

These molecules react to form flavor molecules

like pyrazines and thiols that are usually associated

with roasted meats.

I love it, love it.

[pounding]

All our chefs used celery in their chowder.

Celery has strings that can be tough to chew.

You know, we don’t use celery enough

I don’t think anymore.

Bite it in and then these strings

would hang from your mouth.

There are a few different types of strings.

Deep inside the leaf, which most people call stocks,

there’s xylem which moves water,

and phloem which moves food through the plant tissues.

These strings help keep your celery crisp.

A third type of string is the outer skeletal strings

called collenchyma that are made of cellulose and pectins.

These interact with surrounding cell walls

and stretch relatively easily without breaking,

almost like plastic.

So they’re hard to chew and break down.

These are the ones that Julie’s most likely annoyed with.

And did you know,

that you actually burn more calories eating celery

than there is in celery.

It’s a little more complicated than that Julie.

Celery’s very low in calories

and your body does expand energy

digesting and metabolizing it,

especially if it has strings.

But metabolism is complex,

and as soon as you add any other food with celery,

the calorie math equation changes.

So while adding celery to your diet is a good thing

from a nutritional perspective,

you’re not gonna offset any calories

from other foods you’re eating with it.

I don’t know science, guys, I just know cooking.

[pounding]

Shariff served corn chowder with saltines,

sometimes called soda crackers

because they’re made with baking soda and flour.

They’re starchy flat squares

that add a nice crunch to his chowder.

It all works.

Julie served her chowder with oyster crackers.

You may wonder why they’re called oyster crackers

if they’re used in clam chowder.

There’s no oyster in the cracker,

but the way they got their name

comes from two different points of history.

Maybe ’cause of their shape.

Originally they have this kind of weird

maybe oyster shell shape.

But I’m not really sure of the reason

they call them oyster crackers.

I dunno, maybe Rose does.

Some say they got their name

because they’re similarly shaped like an oyster.

Others, because they were made to go with oyster stew.

Either way, people have been eating

these small, white, starchy salty crackers

for hundreds of years.

They’re very dry, so they don’t get soggy very quickly

when you add them to a chowder.

Yay.

Frank made his own delicious level three oyster crackers

and elevated them.

Instead of relying solely on flour, baking soda,

water, and salt, he added parsley, thyme, and bacon fat.

I’m proud of myself.

No matter how you like your chowder,

with corn, clams, or crab,

we hope you’ll take some tips

from our three outstanding chefs.

[upbeat music]