Seafood Boil Recipe — Helen’s Maine Coast Clam Chowder

The rain broke and suddenly it's May and Vermont remembers what green looks like. The maples leafed out overnight — or that's how it seems, though I know it takes weeks. The speed of spring always catches me off guard, even after sixty-three years of watching it happen. You wait and wait through mud season and then one morning you step outside and the world has changed while you were making coffee.

I planted the peas on Monday. Helen says I always plant them too early. I say you can't plant peas too early, that's the whole point of peas — they're the first ones in, the advance guard, the soldiers who go before anyone else to see if the ground is ready. She says I militarize everything. She's not wrong.

Also put in lettuce, spinach, and radishes. The tomatoes and peppers won't go in until after Memorial Day, because late frosts in Vermont are as reliable as taxes and twice as unwelcome. I have seedlings on the kitchen windowsill that Helen started in March — she starts them in egg cartons, a system that looks chaotic and is actually precise. She knows exactly which carton has which variety. I know not to move them.

For the blog this week, I wrote about clam chowder. New England clam chowder, the real kind — cream-based, no tomatoes, don't even talk to me about Manhattan style. I know I'm a Vermont man and not a coastal man, but Helen grew up spending summers on the Maine coast with her aunt, and she brought the chowder recipe back like a souvenir that actually mattered.

You start with salt pork — there's a theme here, and the theme is salt pork, which is the backbone of New England cooking and I will fight anyone who disagrees. Render the fat, cook the onions, add potatoes and clam juice, simmer until the potatoes are tender, add the clams and cream. Don't boil it after the cream goes in. Boiling cream in chowder is a crime against the ocean.

Sarah sent photos of Ben covered in spaghetti. He's two and apparently believes that food is a full-body experience. Tom is standing in the background of every photo looking like a man who has accepted his fate. I showed Helen and she laughed until she had to sit down. We've been looking at those photos all week. Two-year-olds are nature's comedians.

The garden is planted. The chowder was good. Frost chased a rabbit and lost, as usual. May in Vermont. The best month.

May in Vermont deserved a proper celebration, and after a week of garden work, grandkid photos, and a cat who still hasn’t caught that rabbit, Helen’s chowder felt like exactly the right way to mark it—something warm and unhurried, made the way she learned it up on the Maine coast. I’ve watched her make this a dozen times, but writing it down finally forced me to pay attention to every step. Here’s how it goes.

Helen’s Maine Coast New England Clam Chowder

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 4 oz salt pork, cut into small dice
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups clam juice (bottled or reserved from clams)
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 3 cans (6.5 oz each) chopped clams, drained with juice reserved
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Salt to taste
• Oyster crackers and fresh chives, for serving

Instructions

1. Render the salt pork. Place the diced salt pork in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes until the fat has rendered and the pieces are golden and crisp. Remove the crisped pork bits with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pot.
2. Sweat the aromatics. Add the onion and celery to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 6–7 minutes until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
3. Build the base. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir to coat. Cook for 2 minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste. Gradually pour in the clam juice and water, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.
4. Simmer the potatoes. Add the cubed potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and white pepper. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15–18 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender when pierced with a fork.
5. Add the clams. Stir in the drained clams. Simmer for 2 minutes — just enough to warm them through without turning them rubbery.
6. Finish with cream. Reduce heat to low. Pour in the heavy cream and milk, stirring gently to combine. Warm the chowder through until it is steaming but do not let it boil — boiling the cream will break the texture and is, as Walter puts it, a crime against the ocean. Remove the bay leaves.
7. Season and serve. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Ladle into bowls, scatter the reserved salt pork bits over the top, and finish with fresh chives. Serve with oyster crackers alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 22g | Fat: 26g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 890mg