Brattens Famous Clam Chowder

"Smooth, creamy, and OMG so good! This recipe comes from Brattens which used to be located in Salt Lake City, Utah, years ago. It's been gone for years, but this clam chowder lives on. What a legacy! The restaurant gave me the recipe back in the middle 60's."
 
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photo by Fauve photo by Fauve
photo by Fauve
photo by *Parsley* photo by *Parsley*
photo by *Parsley* photo by *Parsley*
Ready In:
50mins
Ingredients:
10
Serves:
4-6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Put the prepared vegetables in a saucepan.
  • Drain juice from clams and pour over the vegetables.
  • Add enough water to BARELY cover.
  • Simmer, covered over medium heat till barely tender.
  • (DO NOT overcook!).
  • In the meantime, melt butter in another medium saucepan.
  • Add flour.
  • Blend and cook, stirring constantly; add the cream.
  • Cook and stir with wire whip, until smooth and thick.
  • It is important that you stir constantly while cooking.
  • Add undrained vegetables, clams and vinegar.
  • Heat through, but do not boil again.

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Reviews

  1. This is my fathers recipe. His name was Lory Bemis and he was the head chef at Brattens for years. He created ot along with Milt Wileman.
     
  2. OUTSTANDING clam chowder! I think I've made every chowder on ebay in the last 3 years and this one is the best! My family loved it! I made it exactly as described, but I simmered my vegetables slowly and had plenty of water left at the end so that may be why I didn't need to thin it down. I was a little worried about adding the vinegar since I'm not a vinegar fan at all, but the chowder didn't have a vinegary taste at all--just a little something "extra" that added to the overall flavor. Thanks for posting this!
     
  3. Another secret to this recipe is that the restaurant would use fish stock (created in-house) instead of water when cooking the vegetables.
     
  4. In our family, we always add one fourth teaspoon each of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Absolutely delicious!
     
  5. This is a hearty, creamy "chowdery" chowder. The way it should be. Too many recipes are either too thin and soupy, have too many ingredients that aren't in classic New England style or just a form potato soup. This.one gets it just right.
     
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Tweaks

  1. This was very yummy. I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe, as I found the soup too thick and too rich. After combining the veggies and the white sauce (step #11), I also added a fair amount of 1% milk as the soup was way too heavy for me, and next time I think I will not use cream to make the white sauce, but whole milk instead. I also needed to add more salt, plus I added thyme, savory and black pepper too. I really liked the technique of this soup and found it very easy and quite quick to make. With the exception of the cream, inexpensive too. I made this yesterday and finished off the leftovers tonight; the soup reheated well in the microwave, although (as expected with a chowder) it had thickened up in the fridge and needed thinning with a little milk while reheating. Thanks for posting; I'll be making this again!
     

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