makes about 4 quarts)
3 strips bacon
¼ lb. butter*
2 T olive oil
3 cans chopped clams, incl. liquor
3 small, mild onions (not sweet) chopped fine
3 medium white potatoes in ¼ in. dice
4 med. lge. cloves garlic minced
2 – 8 oz. bottles of clam juice (or 1+ tbsp Minor’s clam base**)
4 small bay leaves
3 whole cloves
1 qt. half & half *
1 qt. whole milk*
½ cup flour
Combine milk and half & half in 5 qt. stock pot or Dutch oven. Place cloves and bay leaves in garni ball/tube or wrapped in cheese cloth (for easy removal, later. Simmer to scald milk and to flavor. Skim if/as necessary. (*I have found that you can eliminate much of the fat, with little sacrifice in richness and flavor, if you substitute 2 quarts of Land-o-Lakes fat free half-n-half—in the purple waxed milk containers.)
At the same time, slice bacon into tiny ribbons and sauté in a large heavy skillet. Add olive oil, butter, then minced garlic and sauté till soft. Add onion, diced very fine, and simmer till beginning to brown. To skillet contents add 1 bottle of clam juice. Add diced potatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Potatoes should be almost done, but crisp tender.
Add flour to remaining clam juice, whisking carefully to be sure it is smooth. Then whisk this into the milk. Then add everything else to the stock pot and simmer for another 10 minutes, at least, till thickened (flour should always be cooked at least 10 minutes.) Two or three minutes before done, add the clams and their water to warm thru (cooking the clams too long will toughen them.)
Remove garni, adjust seasonings and serve. If you use clam base or "real" clam liquor (see below) you won't likely need any salt
**Since becoming a Floridian, in the heart of clam country I have learned that one can make clams do “double duty.” I bake mahogany clams at 500 degrees, in a cake pan, and reserve the liquor, serving the clams on another occasion. 100 clams generates about 2 cups of liquor, which is exactly enough to substitute for bottled clam juice. While a little more salty, it works well in this recipe. (It is too salty for Manhattan chowder.) And, of course, one can use chowder clams, but Snow’s canned chopped clams are considerably cheaper, and in this chowder, properly seasoned, I don’t think the added expense is worth it, not to mention the added nuisance.
