Brattens Famous Clam Chowder

Name: Brattens Famous Clam Chowder
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4-6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 1 cup onion, finely chopped; 1 cup celery, finely diced; 2 cups very finely diced potatoes (peeled); 2 (6 1/2 ounce) cans minced clams, and juice; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 3/4 cup butter (not margarine); 3/4 cup flour; 1 quart half-and-half (cream); 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; pepper

Submitted by silly sally

"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

Ready In:: 50mins
Ingredients:: 10
Serves:: 4-6

ingredients

1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely diced
2 cups very finely diced potatoes (peeled)
2 (6 1/2 ounce) cans minced clams, and juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
³⁄₄ cup butter (not margarine)
³⁄₄ cup flour
1 quart half-and-half (cream)
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
pepper

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

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!

Chef SuzyQ
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.

angelusspike1981
In our family, we always add one fourth teaspoon each of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Absolutely delicious!

Leslie W.
Great chowder. Rich and creamy and very easy to prepare. I do think I liked it better before the addition of the vinegar though.

iris5555
This was very good. I did make several chages....more veggies, used some whole milk, some fat free and some cream, and we alwasy have bacon in our clam chowder. Very smooth, silky texture and the vinegar, I would never have thought of that! Thanks!

startnover

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Tweaks

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!

Lennie