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History Revealed --- Manhattan Clam Chowder is born in East Marion. Who Knew?

As told by Ron Kennedy, 90 year old resident of Peconic Landing, formerly of East Marion. It happened just after the Civil War -- two of the seafaring men of East Marion who had been blockade runners during the Civil War fell on hard times and fell out with many of their fellow seamen. In fact, truth be told, they were run out of town "by an old lady from East Marion."

In order to avoid an untimely end and damage to their reputations, the Winters brothers, James and William fled to NYC and opened a business in Brooklyn on Fulton Street. Yes, it was a fish store, and it was THE Fulton Street Fish Market. After the Brooklyn Bridge was built they moved across to Manhattan, but kept the name, Fulton Fish Market, which became a fairly big operation, including running clambakes for political clubs, like Tammany Hall.

One of their specialties was Clam Chowder. As the price of cream became more dear, they searched around for an alternative to the popular chowder. Tomatoes were in great abundance and significantly cheaper than cream, so they cancelled the cream and substituted tomatoes creating (yep, you guessed it) Manhattan Clam Chowder.

This story, reported in the NY TImes in 1990 (so we know it aint fiction), was written on Dec. 25, 1978 as Austin Phelps Winters sat down at his typewriter to set about straightening out the facts as they pertained to his grandfather William H. Winters and Manhattan clam chowder. Austin Winters's daughters donated to this story to archives at the South Street Seaport Museum.

Very Early Manhattan Clam Chowder
(Adapted from ''The Epicurean'')
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

1/4 cup diced fatback
1 onion, minced
24 littleneck clams, well scrubbed
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, with their juice
3 cups water
1 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 hard tack biscuits, crumbled, or 1 cup cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon butter.

1.In a soup pot over medium heat, sauté the fatback for 5 minutes, add the onions and continue cooking until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the clams, cover the pot and steam for 7 minutes, until the clams open. Remove the clams, discard the shells and set the clam meat aside.

2. Add the potatoes, tomatoes, water and wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the clams and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the thyme, parsley, black pepper and cracker crumbs and simmer for 5 minutes. Whisk in the butter, adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper and serve.

Yield: 6 servings.

There will be lots more fun factoids to follow.