On 2/21/2011 at 3:42 PM, chappie said:Five years later and this competition is still going strong. I won a few years back with an oyster/leek/vermouth batch, miscalculated badly the following year with saffron and had some more or less decent chowders the rest of the way.
And here we are again. Four days away and I'm undecided. There is no hard rule for seafood chowders, but I'm wondering if that is what tasters come expecting? I'm thinking of making a hamhock and white bean (Rancho Gordo of course; yellow-eye) chowder with a rich ham hock stock made with these hocks I get from the local Amish market. But again, I'm not sure. Should I go rich, rich ham hock chowder and then add oysters?
Should I make a ham hock and white bean chowder and add ... sauerkraut?
Any and all ideas or brainstorms are welcome.
Can you post a list of the chowders that you've entered (at least for the last 5 yrs that we missed)?
Also if you use evaporated whole milk in your chowder, you don't have to worry about it breaking. I'm from new England originally and I don't like a heavy broth, such as the occurs when too much butter or cream is used. We traditionally thicken the broth with some of the potatoes that have been mashed and returned to the pan. I have never heard of using a roux or cornstarch to thicken the broth, that's blasphemous. 
.I'm anxious to learn what you have submitted in the last few years and how your entries fared.
A lot of your success, obviously, will depend upon the audience and who is judging. But for my money, a simple chowder highlighting the seafood is always my goal. And yes to the addition of dry vermouth (or dry Sherry, here in FL where conch chowder is popular)
ETA : I just realized that you've already updated to announce that you won in the classic category. Congratulations! I would still like to see a list of the various chowders that you have submitted and the results. - It's not too early to start planning for next year! 
