Going for the Golden Clammy!
Chefs and foodies and cooks of all ages! Your entry form is due TODAY for the 1st Annual Ocracoke Child Care Clam Chowder Cook-Off on April 4th! You can enter in the Traditional or Non-Traditional categories depending on what you put in your chowder. Click here to find the official contest rules and entry form!
The Traditional category is ingredient-specific. You can use an combination of the following: clams and their juice, water, potatoes, onions, salt pork or bacon, salt and pepper. That's all the old-timers needed to make delicious Ocracoke clam chowder, and if it was good enough for them, it should be good enough for you, too. You're also permitted to provide pepper vinegar and/or hot sauce as condiments in the Traditional category.
Your chowder is Non-Traditional if it contains any ingredient not listed above.
Traditional cooks might try the recipe for Clinton Gaskill’s famous, crowd-pleasing chowder, found in the island cookbook, Hoi Toiders, published in 1993 to benefit the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department.
Ocracoke Clam Chowder:
Fry out salt pork until it is cracklins.
Steam the clams open and save the juice.
Wash sand from clams and chop.
Cook the clams in their juice for twenty minutes.
Add cut up potatoes and onions.
Season to taste.
Clinton is quoted as saying, “They can follow my recipe, but it won’t be as good as mine!”
Don't cook? Come out and try the chowders and vote for your favorite! Tasting tickets are just $10! Tasting starts at 11:30am and ends at 2pm.
Don't eat chowder? (Why not?) There'll be hot dogs, beverages, and baked goods, too!
Later that same evening…. come out and dance with the Ocracoke Rockers! The Community Center will be rockin' from 7 – 11pm, so come on out and join the fun. There'll be beer and food, too, for a donation at the door. And cake raffles! Yum!
Remember, entry forms are due TODAY, along with the $25 entry fee (it is a fundraiser, after all). How will you choose between Traditional and Non-Traditional?
Does your chowder look like this?
Or this?
Then it's Non-Traditional. What else could you put in your Non-Traditional Clam Chowder Cook-Off entry? Surprise us!
