1. Using a kettle, fry out salt pork using a low heat. Remove pork and cook diced onion slowly in fat, taking care not to burn it. Add the four cups diced potatoes and the water, better add a little salt and pepper right now. Cover kettle, bring to steaming point, lower heat, cook until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, using cutting board and a sharp knife, cut the head of each clam in two or three pieces. Do the same with the firm part of the clam and the soft part or bellies, also. No, I do not remove the black part. juice Save any you can.

When potatoes are soft, stir in the cut clams, cover pan again, let cook for 8 minutes, no longer for it toughens the clams. Add, 1 ½ quarts of milk and the evaporated milk. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper if necessary. Keep in mind that as the chowder ripens it may be salty enough. Add piece of butter or margarine.

The old recipes always advised us to allow chowder to ripen in refrigerator several hours or a day. Then to reheat it slowly over a very low heat. But now that we use homogenized milk the ripening period often is omitted to avoid danger of the chowder separating, a problem sometimes associated with use of homogenized milk. The use of evaporated milk, as given in these recipes, also helps to avoid curdling.

Serve chowder with common crackers.