New England clam chowder
noun · first attested 20th century
A Maine legislator once introduced a bill to make tomatoes in chowder illegal.
Clam chowder made white with milk or cream and thickened with potatoes.
44.2056°N -70.3064°W · Q18389
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 20th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
New England
- In English
New England clam chowder
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.