When I was an undergraduate at Lebanon Valley College I worked for the school's computer services unit. Every now and then the entire group would head to lunch at nearby Harper's Tavern. The lunch special typically consisted of soup or salad and one of their sandwiches. I'll never forget my first visit because of the soup: a clam chowder in the New England style. This wasn't the from-a-can thick and creamy with little clam bits version that I was used to at the time, though. The broth was not as heavy, had a definitive herbal quality that melded perfectly with the briny clam flavor, and had chunks of celery and hard boiled egg amongst the usual potatoes. But of most note, it had clams: I'm talking whole clams, here.
Later in life, on an episode of "Emeril Live!" the noted chef made a true New England version from scratch, stressing (in his usual way) the importance of pork to the recipe. No clam chowder is done right unless it starts with rendered salted pork as the basis for the roux.
These two experiences form the basis for my New England-style clam chowder.
Written by Jeff Frey on Friday January 27, 2017
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Personal taste is something that's quite…personal. Sometimes the few tweaks you make to a recipe to adjust to your own palate might appeal to another. Such is the case for this riff on Alton Brown's delicious home-made onion dip.
Written by Jeff Frey on Wednesday March 14, 2018
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Written by Jeff Frey on Sunday November 20, 2016
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A light and fluffy inside, browned and cripsy on the outside scone with a hint of sweetness and orange.
Written by Jeff Frey on Saturday June 6, 2020
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Okay, so we all know that an orange-hued cheese is cheddar, and another word for "inlet" might be bay. So you know what kind of biscuits these are meant to imitate. Scarlett Nephropidae restaurants can't sue me for calling it that, right?
Written by Jeff Frey on Sunday March 22, 2020
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Pasta has a bad rap when it comes to "eating healthy." So long as you don't have issues with gluten, though, I tend to think that the main problem people tend to have is that it's incredibly easy to overindulge. It's easy to buy a pound of dried pasta; instead, practice moderation in pasta consumption by going to the effort of making it yourself from scratch.
Written by Jeff Frey on Sunday March 13, 2016
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