| Here's what everyone who types in the URL really wants: the secret recipe for the Original Eurypterid Chowder! Why Eurypterid, says you? 'Tis the New York State Fossil, says I. By the Great Horn Spoon, I been 'round all these years, so I'm thinking that I fits the bill meself, being from New York an' all. Aaargh, shipmates, belay that! I'll have none of your laughing! Them that dies'll be the lucky ones! But I be a Yankee for all that, and there's aught of this namby-pamby Manhattan bilge. Nay, that's naught but vegetable soup an' a few miserly clams! This be the True Elixir, the stuff of a chowderhead's dreams! The Original Eurypterid Chowder Catch or buy enough eurypterids to yield about 2 cups of meat. Remember, they're like lobsters, and most of 'em is shell. Stay with the small ones; them six-footers are tough. Rinse in a cup of clear, cold water, spring water is best. Reserve the liquor. Chop the scraps into small chunks. Cook a 1 1/2" cube fat salt pork, diced, in a deep pan, and cook slowly until scraps are crispy and brown. Remove scraps, set aside. Add 1 onion, chopped fine, to the pot. Yellow onions are the best. Cook slowly until the onion is golden, not crispy! Cube 3 cups potatoes, New England potatoes are the best! Put the spuds and chopped eurypterid scraps in the pan in layers, dredging each layer with with good white flour and salt and pepper. Carefully add 2-1/2 cups boiling water. Simmer til the spuds are tender (stick a fork in 'em!) Add the prime eurypterid meat and cook 2 minutes. Carefully add 4 cups hot milk (don't need to boil it, now, and make a mess!) 4 tablespoons butter. At the end, (you don't want this to curdle!) add the reserved liquor mixed with 1 more tablespoon butter (yum!) and 1 tablespoon flour. Stir this up gently, don't scald anybody! Sprinkle some of the crispy pork scraps into each bowl. Serves 12 stingily, serves 8 pretty well, serves 4 into a stupor! Bon appetite! Note: if eurypterids aren't in season, clams serve quite well. Canned clams are an alternative in clamless regions. A can or so'll do you nicely. If fresh clams are in season, you'll need a quart of 'em. This means you shell 'em, pick 'em over, etc. You will smell like clams. Be sure your clams are FRESH. Bad clams are, well, kinda poisonous. |
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| Eurypterid Chowder |
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