I love New England Clam Chowder. So when Tele and Savory decided on Northeastern America for EU Night I had to make it. I know that it goes against my MO of making desserts for EU night and everything else, but this was a must.

In making clam chowder you have a very important decision to make...canned or fresh clams. I read both types of recipes. I was a little scared of the whole shucking of clams, but that wasn't going to stop me from using fresh clams. The idea of canned clams in kind of creepy too. Alton Brown suggests using both clams, fresh in the soup itself and then topping the bowl with a few fresh clams. I don't like the idea of a shelled clam sitting upon my bowl of soup though. So that was definitely not the solution. Ohh, what to do? The decision was made for me when the meat counter guy at Smith's explained that he didn't stock fresh clams regularly, but only by special order. Alright, so there we go. Canned clams it is (even though I still found canned clams to be a strange thing).

Now to find the ultimate recipe. I started out my research in cookbooks around the house, but they just didn't have what I was looking for. I then moved to the internet and finally decided on Michael Chu's Clam Chowder New England Style on Cooking for Engineers. I love how this guy thinks. The recipes have so much wonderful detail. I have decided that it is the engineering part of my brain that leads me into doing my crazy photo journal recipes on EU. But, anyway, I digress.

Now that I was armed with the recipe and ingredients it was just time to wait for EU Night to roll around.

In true EU Night fashion I did not perform a test run of any kind on this recipe. It was either going to be good or bad, but we would all find out together. I am happy to report that it came out very good. There is an amazing amount of clams in this wonderfully creamy soup. I will say that you must not skimp on the salt. The salt is certainly a key ingredient in balancing the flavors.

The one thing that I will add to the recipe next time I make it is a rib or two of celery. I didn't think I would miss the celery that Progresso's Rich and Hearty New England Clam Chowder has in it, but I really did.