Orr column: Ocracoke clam chowder features fresh, quality ingredients

Although I love our quaint historic town of Edenton, I have recently become enamored with another charming seaside village with an illustrious history and unique local food.

Ocracoke is the most isolated and southern-most inhabited section of the Outer Banks and is only accessible by ferry, plan or private boat. Ocracoke’s first residents were members of the pre-Columbian Wocon tribe. The island’s notoriety includes being the location where Blackbeard was finally brought down by the British army in 1718, a year before it became a part of the colonies.

In 1719, a deputy of the Lords Proprietors for the Colony of North Carolina was granted the small 2,000-acre island of Ocracoke.

Today, it is best known for its beautiful remote beaches and its Fig Festival. In the past I have included recipes for Ocracoke’s fig cake, but I have recently been introduced to this island’s local chowder by friends Missie and Scotty Harrell. Scotty long ago lived on Ocracoke and they both now are part-timers on the island.

Curiously there are more than a dozen regional recipes for clam chowder. The cream-based New England clam chowder and Manhattan’s chowder with tomatoes may be the most common, but other varieties include Rhode Island which has a clear broth; Minorcan Clam Chowder from St. Augustine, which has Spanish flavors and includes peppers and tomato; and Portuguese clam chowder, which also includes peppers but also adds spicy sausage.

There’s also Maine chowder, which uses milk and is thinner than New England chowder, while Connecticut clam chowder also uses milk but adds hard tack or crackers as a thickening agent.

Ocracoke clam chowder uses fresh clams in a clear broth of clam or chicken stock. Its simplicity relies on fresh, quality ingredients.

This week I have included a few recipes for this simple chowder from the “Original Ocracoke Cookbook,” published by the United Methodist Women of the United Methodist Church of Ocracoke.

Enjoy!

Mrs. Rosa Garrish’s Clam Chowder

Ingredients

• 1 quart clams, chopped fine

• 5 medium potatoes cubed

• 3 slices salt pork

• 1 medium onion

Preparation:

Fry out salt pork until light brown. Add all other ingredients and a quart of water. Cook slowly about 1 to 1½ hours (no longer).

Mrs. Levella Howard’s Clam Chowder

• 1 quart clams (medium ground or chopped)

• 3 medium potatoes, cubed small

• 1 onion cut fine

• 2 slices salt pork (cut in cubes)

• 2 quarts water

• salt to taste

Preparation

Fry out pork till brown. Add clams and onion and water. Cook about 1½ hours then add potatoes; cook another 1½ hours on very low heat.

Mrs. Beulah Boyette’s Wahab Village Hotel Clam Chowder

• 1 quart chopped clams

• I pint sliced potatoes

• quart water

• Drippings from 6 strips bacon (not salt pork)

• 4 medium onions

Preparation

Put all ingredients in pot and cook slowly for at least four hours. Add water as needed. This chowder should be thick when finished.

If you have a cooking question, contact me at cher.orr@gmail.com and I’d be happy to assist!

Cheryl Orr was the chef and owner of The Cotton Gin Inn in Edenton, and now owns Cotton Gin Inn Culinary in downtown Edenton.