SPOTLIGHT HALAL: Chowder

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	PORK / ALCOHOL (?)
	Chowders are traditionally prepared with salt pork or bacon. Some canned products contain alcohol. View our halal recipe for Authentic Seafood Chowder.

WHAT IS IT?
Chowder is a type of soup popular in New England and Atlantic Canada. Although the word chowder commonly refers to clam chowder, it can be any variety of the rich, chunky and usually creamy soup. Common chowders include corn chowder, seafood chowder and fish chowder. Of the clam chowders, thick and creamy New England Clam Chowder is the most popular variety. Other varieties of clam chowder include the brothy Rhode Island Clam Chowder, milky Maine Clam Chowder and tomato-based Manhattan Clam Chowder.

The word "chowder" was introduced to New England by French-speaking Breton fishermen from Newfoundland, Canada. The fishermen would throw portions of the day's catch and other available foods into a large pot, called a 'chaudron' (a cauldron). In New England, Manhattan clam chowder is considered inferior to the creamy and clear varieties. The tomato-based chowder was a contribution from Portuguese immigrants in Rhode Island. Scornful New Englanders called this modified version "Manhattan-style" clam chowder because in New England calling someone a New Yorker is considered to be an insult.

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HOW IS IT MADE?
Chowder is made by first frying onions and diced potatoes in salt pork or bacon and then cooking these further in a fish or seafood broth or clam juice. Sometimes corn or celery is added. Towards the end of cooking, milk, evaporated milk or cream is added, and then finally fresh chopped clams or other seafood.

Salt pork is the salted, preserved belly fat of pigs. It is used to flavor many traditional American dishes including chowders and Boston baked beans. Salt pork is similar to bacon, but unsmoked and much fattier and saltier. Unlike with bacon, it is the fat of salt pork that is used as a flavoring, but the small amount of attached pork meat is not. Some modern recipes call for bacon to impart a mildly smokey flavor. Butter can be used in place of either.

WARNING LEVEL: HIGH 
Clam Chowder is a very popular soup with Muslims who order seafood dishes to avoid eating meat. Because salt pork is a fat, not a meat, it is impossible to see it in the chowder. Salt pork is almost never listed as an ingredient on restaurant menus. Chowders containing bacon are easier to detect. These chowders have small pink bits floating in the soup.

Some canned varieties of chowder may not contain pork, but will list an alcoholic beverage like sherry, brandy or a wine like chablis in its ingredients.

Homemade Clam Chowder. Yum!

AMNA RECOMMENDS
No matter what kind of chowder you're buying—clam, fish, corn or chicken, Manhattan or New England style—check the ingredients. If the chowder contains 'bacon', 'salt pork', 'sherry', 'brandy' or 'chablis', skip it. When eating out, ask your waiter if that restaurant uses salt pork or bacon in their clam chowder recipe.

A big pot of tasty, satisfying New England clam chowder is easy to make at home for under $15. Try our authentic New England recipe. If that doesn't work for you, see our SPOTLIGHT REVIEW of popular chowder brands.

SPOTLIGHT REVIEW: CHOWDER
Click on any of the chowder products below to see a listing of brands, their products and SPOTLIGHT HALAL's rating on each. To know how we did it, read our methodology (next section).

Canned Chowders

BRAND	VARIETY	CONTAINS...	RATING
Bar Harbor®	Cherrystone Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Corn Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Fish Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Lobster Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Manhattan-Style Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Salmon Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
Campbell's®	Chunky Healthy Request Soup, New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Chunky Healthy Request Soup, Chicken Corn Chowder	Artificial bacon flavor (from soy). Contains chicken.
	Chunky Soup, New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Chunky Soup, Chicken Corn Chowder	Bacon
	Condensed Manhattan Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Condensed New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Select Harvest, New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
Kettle Cuisine®	Clam Chowder, New England (box)	Salt Pork
Natural Sea®	Clam Chowder, New England Style	no pork or alcohol products.
New England Country Soup®	New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Chicken Corn Chowder	no pork or alcohol products. Contains chicken.
Phillips®	New England Style Clam Chowder (box)	Bacon
	Crab & Corn Chowder	White Wine, chicken
	Crab & Shrimp Chowder	White Wine, chicken
	Cream of Crab Soup	Sherry, chicken
Progresso®	Rich & Hearty New England Clam Chowder	Chablis Wine, Brandy
	Rich & Hearty Chicken Corn Chowder	Bacon
	Traditional 99% Fat Free New England Clam Chowder	Chablis Wine, Brandy
	Traditional Manhattan Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
	Traditional New England Clam Chowder	no pork or alcohol products.
Taste Adventure®	Sweet Corn Chowder (pouch)	no pork or alcohol products.
Wolfgang Puck's®	Organic Corn Chowder	Alcohol
	This list was compiled & published by SPOTLIGHT HALAL Magazine.

RESTAURANT Chowders

RESTAURANT	VARIETY	CONTAINS...	RATING
Friendly's Restaurants (New York, New England)	Homestyle Clam Chowder	bacon bits
Legal Sea Foods[1] (New England, NY/NJ, Mid-Atlantic states, GA, FL)	Legal Seafood Clam Chowder	salt pork
	Legal's Inaugural Fish Chowder	monterey jack cheese
Phillips Seafood (NY/NJ, Mid-Atlantic states, GA)	New England Style Clam Chowder	bacon
	for other Phillips Seafood chowder varieties, see above
	This list was compiled & published by SPOTLIGHT HALAL Magazine.

HOW WE DID IT:
Our goal was to compile as thorough a list of chowder brands  as possible, identifying which are made with pork products like bacon or salt pork and/or alcohol. Information for each product was taken off of the products' Ingredients lists, or in the case of restaurant foods, off the restaurant's web site or published cookbook. All ingredients listed are current as of the date of this article's publication. Because product recipes and ingredients change, be sure to check a product's Ingredient list at the time of purchase.

SPECIAL NOTE: ARE CLAMS HALAL?
Sunni: Clams are halal food in the Malaki, Hanbali and Shafa'i Schools. Within the Hanafi School, there are varying opinions.

Shi'a: Jafaris do not consider clams to be halal.
And the two seas are not alike―the one palatable, sweet, and pleasant to drink, and the other salty and bitter.  Yet from each (kind of water) do ye eat flesh fresh and tender and ye extract ornaments to wear; and thou seest the ships therein that plough the waves, that ye may seek (thus) of the Bounty of Allah that ye may be grateful.
—The Qur'an. Suratu Faatir: 12

CAN MUSLIMS USE KOSHER SYMBOLS TO KNOW IF CHOWDER IS HALAL?
NO. Clams, shrimp and other mollusks and cephalopods (squid, octopus, etc.) are not kosher.[2] Chicken chowder can not be kosher because it goes against the halachic prohibition against mixing meat and dairy (milk, cream, etc.) in the same meal. This means that you won't find a kosher symbol on a can of clam, seafood or chicken chowder even if it doesn't contain a pig product like pork fat or bacon. You need to turn the can around to look at the ingredients list.

SPECIAL NOTE: ALCOHOL AND COOKING
AMNA classifies any food that has been made with an alcoholic product as ALCOHOL, even if it has been sautéed, simmered, baked or set on fire. The conventional wisdom accepted by just about everyone is that all the alcohol you add to a dish evaporates during cooking. It’s wrong.

In fact, according to a study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory, you have to cook something for a good three hours to remove virtually all traces of alcohol. After it has simmered for 15 minutes, 40% of the alcohol remains in the canned chowder.

-- Learn more about Alcohol cook-off times at: http://www.isitharam.com/halal_info/prohibited/alcohol_cooking.jsp --

		PORK is the rating that we give to any food that always contains pork or a pig-derived product.
		ALCOHOL is the rating that we give to any food that always contains alcohol, even if it has been cooked.
		HALAL(?) is the rating that we give to food that 1). Commonly contains meat from a halal animal that may not have been zabiha-slaughtered; 2). To food containing cheese possibly made with animal rennet; 3). Certain seafood whose permissibility varies according to methhab.
		HALAL is the rating that we give to food that is always halal. In line with the Quran and Sunna, IsItHaram.com and SPOTLIGHT HALAL includes all seafood in this rating.

At SPOTLIGHT HALAL, our Guiding Principle is to provide the diverse Muslim communities living in Western countries with practical information about the wide range of food choices they face on a daily basis, but from an Islamic perspective. We don’t say a food is haram or halal; we say: "This food is made with alcohol and pork," or, "That food normally contains chicken." Whether or not you observe zabihah, our flexible and informative approach allows you to make informed decisions on what to buy and eat.

REFERENCES:

[1] The Legal Seafood Cookbook. Legal Seafoods Clam Chowder.
[2] Torah. Leviticus 11: 9-12

LEGAL
All brands described in this article are registered trademarks of their owners. Bar Harbor® is a registered trademark of Bar Harbor Foods, Inc.; Campbell's® is a registered trademark of Campbell Soup Company; Kettle Cuisine® is a registered trademark of Kettle Cuisine; Natural Sea® is a trademark of Natural Sea; New England Country Soup® is a registered trademark of New England Country Foods, LLC; Phillips® is a registered trademark of Phillips Seafood Restaurants; Progresso® is a registered trademark of Betty Crocker, a General Mills company; Taste Adventure® is a registered trademark of Will-Pak Foods, Inc.; Wolfgang Puck's® is a registered trademark of Country Gourmet Foods, LLC; Legal Sea Foods® is a registered trademark of Legal Sea Foods; Friendly's® is a registered trademark of Friendly Ice Cream Corporation; Phillips® is a registered trademark of Phillips Seafood Restaurants.