New England clam chowdernoun · 20th century
Well attestedA Maine legislator once introduced a bill to make tomatoes in chowder illegal.
The regional label only became necessary once a tomato version, recorded as Manhattan clam chowder by 1934, had to be told apart from the older milk based soup. In 1939 the Maine representative Cleveland Sleeper filed a bill to outlaw tomatoes in chowder, its preamble declaring that tomatoes and clams have no affinity either of mind or body. The word chowder itself comes from the French chaudière, a cooking pot.
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