It's Canadian Clam Soup, Not Chowder?

It's not often my mom and I take time to cook together anymore; not like when I was a child still living under her roof, learning tidbits here and there, helping with simple tasks and flipping through the pages of her scrapbook-style recipe collection with fascination. But thanks to Vocal, here we are!

I had two goals in mind when choosing a recipe to highlight:

1. Find something unique to us as a family.

2. Find a way to make sure it was tied to our culture as Canadians.

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Let's start with the harder of the two objectives ->Defining Canadian Culture.

We are more than maple syrup, poutine and hockey (not that we don't love them!)

Canadians recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of our maple leaf flag. The question that always pops up around such anniversaries is what does it truly mean to be a Canadian?

It gets tiresome hearing the response, "Canadians don't have a culture" because I assure you, we do.

Firstly, we are a constitutional monarchy and not a republic, which allows a moderating effect on our political processes and might possibly be the reason Canadians are considered polite. We disagree, but we still behave ourselves for the most part in front of company. We understand it is important to keeping peace in our mosaic. And Canadians value peace.

Our origin story is a combination of colonization, immigration and Indigenous peoples. It is a complex history and we are still pursuing reconciliation efforts regarding colonization and navigating immigration growing pains. It greatly shapes our experiences and foods. My family and friends are living testament to this process past and present.

Example:

Mom's paternal grandmother was Irish and her paternal grandfather was German. Her maternal grandfather was a French speaking Catholic Highlander Scot and her maternal grandmother was a blend of French Canadian and Indigenous Canadian (of nation unknown sadly). Mom's mother remarried a Ukrainian upon being widowed and moved to Manitoba. My mom is from New Brunswick and my dad is from Ontario. Some of Dad's family now lives in British Colombia. His background is mainly English. We live within an hour of two fresh water lakes full of fish. Southern Ontario, where our home is, is a land of easily grown fruits and vegetables. Mom spent a lot of time in the 70s and 80s working with Italians and often swapped recipes. Needless to say, our family supper table menus were rather . . . eclectic!

My best friend, Ashika, came over in the 90s from Fiji. Her children were born here. I helped her raise them while sampling endless butter chicken, aloo matar and paneer. My former coworker, Aparna, is recently arrived from India and in the midst of her permanent residency while caring for Canada's sick and elderly as a PSW. I'm looking forward to adding myself as a reference to her immigration paperwork, the same as I did for Ashika 15 years ago. Through Aparna, I sampled my first durian, but nope, it was not for me!

And I wouldn't have been able to make this recipe at all were it not for a second generation Italian Canadian friend, Joe, who knew where to find jarred baby clams free of additives — just like the kind that existed in my mom's youth in the 50s. The brand Mom used when I was small no longer makes a product she feels is safe to eat.

All of us are Canadian.

The Unspoken Motto

Canadians weave their culture from the traditions of elsewhere, create new ones in situ (often related to our climate and love of the outdoors, such as tobogganing), but most importantly, we live and let live. Tensions do arise, but we are proud of this worldly distinction to live and let live and we try to find our way back to it even if we veer off course.

Overall, we are a people who simply like living. If you love hosting a good kitchen party, if you like an excuse to celebrate, and you're not afraid to feed a stranger, you'll find a welcoming home here. In my world, it's quite fun enjoying Halloween and Diwali and Thanksgiving treats every October.

Canadian culture is a state of mind.

Being Canadian is more of a feeling, a strong sense of empathy and ingenuity born of grit and resiliency. We are not fancy people. But if you want it done? Ask a Canadian. If you need a hand, we're there.

It's open mindedness, by and large, or at least acquiescence to accept our differences and get on with our own business. It's a choice to take care of each other through universal health care. It's year long paternity leaves, destigmatized sexual freedoms and separation of church and state.

It's holding doors open even when it's a little inconvenient to wait, saying sorry to the person who bumped into you, pay it forward Tim's lines, and a collective effort to support one another in tough economic times despite provincial squabbling.

It's the earned knowledge of figuring out how to dress for 4 seasons in 1 week while outrunning nesting geese.

I could go on, but hopefully you have a better snapshot now, or at least enough to appreciate our recipe.

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With all of this cultural discussion on the table, mom and I had a tough decision to make. It needed to be a dish like us, like the Canadian people. It had to be heartwarming, a mosaic of ingredients — not an unidentifiable blend. It needed to feel accessible and easy to create, something that can be shared in a group setting, something that shows we care about our fellow humans, something that won't break the bank and something that hits the spot in the dead of a Canadian winter. It couldn't be Kraft Dinner, I've already written about that here -->.

IT HAD TO BE A SOUP.

Specific to my family history, it had to be CLAM SOUP. Which is NOT the same as chowder as we've come to learn! :) Chowder has a cream base, expensive varieties of seafoods and is generally, well, a bit posh.

"Down Home Clam Chowder" aka Clam soup is a family tradition, and common in mom's region of Saint John, New Brunswick. Mom knew the recipe as a learned one from her mother, but she recently found it in a recipe book given to her by a friend that dates back to the 1920s. This is where we saw it titled as a soup and not a chowder and even though we used to call it clam chowder, we've come to agree it really is more of a soup!

~*~

Why should you make clam soup?

It's cheap (more so when there were local canned clams), high protein and nutrient dense (clams are packed with iron and vitamin C so it's a great food to combat anemia). It has potassium rich potatoes, and immunity boosting onions. It uses basic ingredients and requires simple preparation.

Most importantly, mom reminds me, because it has potatoes, "it sticks to your ribs". That's important in a cold climate to a culture which values nurturing their family, friends and neighbours. If you use a modern Vitamin D enriched milk, we swear you won't even miss the sun after a bowl of clam soup!

Just kidding . . . but you'll be a lot less likely to groan about the weather on a full stomach.

I have memories of mom making this recipe for us as children, and taking it to primary school and high school to share with my Ontario friends so they could have a salty taste of the Maritimes. In mom's words, "it smells like the ocean" and it's true. It's a little sip of her childhood home, brought two provinces away into her married home, fed to her daughter and now passed on to strangers on the internet! Oh how far the world has come . . .

Making Clam Soup or "Down Home" Clam Chowder

In mom's words:

2 five ounce tins of baby clams, undrained. They come in a salt water brine. *We substituted Joe's Italian clams.

I medium onion finely chopped.

Two large potatoes, cubed White potatoes not yellow ones and preferably N.B. potatoes they are the best.

2 Tablespoon of butter

1 Tablespoon of parsley flakes, optional. I just put it in because it looks pretty floating around, at least I think so it does nothing for the actual taste of the chowder. Your Grandma never used the parsley flakes. I do it because I like food to look pretty!

10 ½ ounces of whole milk NOT CREAM (about 2.5 jars if you use the clam jars to measure)

Salt and Pepper to taste. Easy on the salt because the clams are already in a salt water brine and the butter I used was salted.

Method:

Peel and cube potatoes, then boil with water in a large sauce pan. Just enough water to cover the potatoes, not too much water. Finely chop onion and add to the cooking potatoes. Boil together until the potatoes are cooked but not too soft or mushy.

Drain off only ¾ of the water that the potatoes and onion have been cooking in.

Add the two tins of baby clams, brine and all. Simmer a few minutes.

Add the milk and butter. Simmer a few minutes.

Add the pepper (salt if wanted) & parsley flakes.

Simmer again over low heat for at least twenty minutes, do not let the soup come to a boil.

Serve with crackers or bread.

And about mom's memory of making it as a woman my age:

"Before I was married and was living on my own, I would make up a big pot of clam soup and keep it in the fridge all week. Each night I would come home and take out a couple of ladlefuls of soup and heat it up. Not in a microwave, NEVER THAT WAY! Just heated up slowly and gently in a pot on the stove.

The longer the soup set in the fridge the better it would taste, all the flavours would come together and become more flavourful. Because it was fully cooked, keeping it for five or six days in the fridge was never a problem. I would not heat up the whole batch every time, just a single portion for my dinner and that way it kept better in the fridge. "

Stages

Prep.

Lightly boil and drain the onions and potatoes.

Add clams and simmer.

Add milk, butter and simmer.

Siphon a gulp of milk for the cat.

Season and simmer about 20 more minutes.

Serve and Enjoy with family and friends!

Concluding this hodgepodge of thoughts, mom and I just want to say that we are both grateful this challenge came along because it gave us an opportunity to flip back through time and explore some of our past and present experiences as a Canadian family. We hope you give clam soup a try one day!

PS.

Empress Savannah says she cannot vouch for the quality beyond her sampling of the lactose free milk since cats cannot safely enjoy clams.

First published by Call Me Les on Vocal Media February 2025. All rights reserved.