Maize Chowder With Little Cod Pieces

I used to work at the Bristol Renaissance Faire running the cast kitchen. It was my job to feed the performers a good meal at as low a price as possible. That was the best time I ever had in my life, and it left me with a lot of recipes. One of them was this one, which I used simply because I could change the name to include a play on codpieces. I don't recall where the original recipe came from. However, it has been adapted several times over the years. What you see is the current version. As always, the recipe appearing above is a 4x6 JPG, so you can download it and print it on 4x6 photo paper to keep in your recipe box.

For tools, you will need:

1. A covered soup pot or Dutch oven. Mine is a 5½-quart, enameled cast-iron Dutch oven from Target.
2. A vegetable brush to scrub the veggies clean of dirt.
3. A cutting board and sharp knife. I use a wood board because the University of Wisconsin did a study that says wood boards are safer to use.
4. A scale. Mine is a glass-top kitchen scale from Taylor.
5. Measuring spoons. I have these black metal spoons that are thin enough to fit into a spice jar. Unfortunately, this set is no longer available from Amazon.
6. A stirring implement. I usually buy cheap wood spoons from Kroger, especially when they have the BOGO special.
7. A fork. This helps determine the flakiness of the fish at the end of the recipe.
8. A whisk. Make sure it is safe to use in the pot that you chose (no metal on nonstick, etc.).
9. Mixing bowls. I got a glass pyrex bowl set from Amazon. Because pyrex is lower case, this is the old, harder-to-break glass. They are wonderful.
10. Because someone will complain if I don't include it, you will obviously need a heat source, such as a stove top.

For ingredients, you will need:

1. 12 oz. frozen cod
2. 1 oz. butter (I spend extra money on Kerrygold because it seems to last longer in the fridge.)
3. 5 oz. celery sticks (If your store sells individual ribs, buy those, or check this Instructables to revive limp celery.)
4. 8 oz. yellow onion
5. 2 tsp. flour (I always use unbleached.)
6. 1 L fish broth (This might be hard to find. The only place in Milwaukee to get it is Meijer.)
7. 12 oz. frozen corn
8. 11 oz. yams; washed, peeled, and diced (If you find Red Garnet sweet potatoes, you can use these and not have to peel them.)
9. ½ tsp. thyme
10. ¾ tsp. salt
11. ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
12. 1 bay leaf

While the cod is frozen, cut it up into spoon-size chunks. If you do this while it is frozen, then it will be easier to cut. You may need to let it thaw just a bit so the knife goes through easily, but trust me. It cuts nicer when frozen. Once cut, put into a small mixing bowl, and set it aside to thaw completely before beginning to cook the recipe. (The next several steps are just preparation.)

Using the scale, measure 1 ounce of butter. Place this into your cooking pot. You can place the cooking pot on the heat source (NOT TURNED ON!) until you begin to cook the recipe.

Wash the dirt off the celery. Dice the celery. Peel and dice the onion. Make the dices no bigger than spoon-size. Smaller is fine, as the soup will cook quicker with smaller chunks.

Measure your 2 teaspoons of flour so it is ready when the recipe is. (If you look closely at the picture, this is a 2 teaspoon measure.)

Wash, peel (I didn't peel because I used a Red Garnet yam), and dice the yam into spoon-size pieces. Put this into a mixing bowl. To the mixing bowl, add the frozen corn and the spices. In the next step, we start to cook.

Turn your heat source to medium. Melt the butter.

Add the onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. The amount of time this takes depends entirely on how big you diced the items. A smaller dice will cook faster.

Turn off the heat. Sprinkle in the flour. Stir it around so it coats all the vegetables.

While whisking to prevent the flour from lumping, slowly pour in the fish broth.

Dump in the remaining ingredients from the mixing bowl and stir to combine. Turn the heat back on.

Bring the soup to a boil.

Reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the pan. Cook until the yams are fork tender. For me, this only took a few minutes.

Stir in the cod. Cover the pan. Cook until the fish is flaky.

Before serving, remove and discard the bay leaf. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of this. Fortunately, the bay leaf was right on the top, so I just spooned it out.

And there is the finished soup. Not the prettiest soup I've ever seen. In fact, I failed at culinary school because I could not make the food look pretty enough, although my instructors were constantly asking me for second helpings. This tastes nicely of fish without being overwhelmingly fishy. The corn adds a bit of sweetness and crunch. For me, the chowder brought me back to the happiest time of my life.

Was it worth it? When I made it 30 years ago, I could sell it for $1 a bowl. Here are the ingredient costs now:

1. cod = $3.65
2. butter = 62¢
3. celery = 34¢
4. onion = 66¢
5. flour = 1¢
6. fish broth = $6.49
7. corn = $1.25
8. yams = $1.02
9. thyme = 1¢
10. salt = 0¢
11. bay leaf = 4¢

The total, then, is $14.35. The original recipe says this makes 4 servings. At Bristol, a "serving" was 2 ladles. Based on the 2-ladle serving size, this makes 8 Bristol servings. That makes this recipe $3.59 and $1.80 per serving, respectively. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, prices have gone up 108% since I first made this recipe. If I charged $1 back then, the price today would be $2.08. I could charge $2 a bowl and still make a slight profit to keep the soup kitchen running. At Bristol, I would make 20 recipes of this soup at the same time over an open fire using a 10-gallon cast-iron cauldron. This would allow me to buy in bulk. A grocer near the fairgrounds, Woodman's, used to sell bags of chunked cod for cheap as well. I wonder if bulk buying would allow me to get it under $1.50 a serving. Hmmm . . .

Anywho, this recipe is definitely worth making for both taste and value. One caveat: Make sure the fish is totally thawed before putting it into the soup. You don't want to cook the fish so long that the onions and potatoes become mush.