Verified in Portland.
Maine fish chowder is a signature dish of United States; we have verified places to eat it in Portland. Milk-and-cream chowder with white fish (cod, haddock or pollock), potato, onion and rendered salt pork, finished with butter. Start with where to eat Maine fish chowder in Portland.
Milk-and-cream chowder with white fish (cod, haddock or pollock), potato, onion and rendered salt pork, finished with butter. Distinct from clam chowder; salt pork carries the fat, milk (never boiled) carries the body.
Fish chowder predates Maine by centuries; French and English fishermen on the Grand Banks made shipboard chowders from the 1500s. The Maine version, refined through the 1700s and 1800s, leans on cod and haddock rather than clams and uses salt pork for fat and milk for body. The 1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book codified the canonical Maine fish chowder ratio: salt pork, onion, potato, fish and milk in that order. Becky's Diner on Commercial Street and Scales on Maine Wharf both run a year-round chowder; in winter, the Old Port seafood rooms switch to chowder-first menus.
Where to eat in Portland:
Where to eat Maine fish chowder in Portland: the editor picks
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