Unlawful To Add Tomatoes to Clam Chowder in Massachusetts?

Declare:

It is unlawful in Massachusetts so as to add tomatoes to clam chowder.

Ranking:

Ask most New Englanders for his or her opinion on tomatoes in clam chowder, and also you’re virtually sure to get a pithy, accented, and strongly opinionated response. (Belief us on this one, we saved you the trouble and requested a couple of ourselves.) 

That is as a result of the talk on the supremacy of creamy New England chowder over tomato-based Manhattan chowder goes again a long time. Some on the web declare that Massachusetts went as far as to make it unlawful so as to add tomatoes to its famed creamy soup. 

Iterations of the claim persist across the internet, akin to the instance shared on Reddit under: 

Massachusetts 1939; a bill making tomatoes in clam chowder illegal, was passed.
byu/unimaginativeuser110 inboston

Snopes discovered no proof that placing tomatoes in clam chowder was unlawful within the Bay State as of this writing in June 2024. It is attainable that such a regulation was drafted or proposed sooner or later throughout Massachusetts’ almost 250-year historical past, however our newsroom discovered no document of such a regulation (or proposed regulation) within the state legislative archives relationship again to 1629. 

For these causes, we have now rated this declare “False.”  

The web is rife with customers keen to argue the prevalence of both Manhattan or New England-style clam chowder. The previous is usually made with a wealthy tomato broth, whereas the latter has a thick, creamy base. On the coronary heart of each sorts, in fact, are the signature summer time seafood, clams. 

Many posts credited this declare to the ABC information affiliate WCVB, which reported in April 2021 that it was “as soon as forbidden to make use of tomatoes in New England clam chowder.” Nonetheless, the outlet didn’t determine or hyperlink to a selected regulation to corroborate the declare. 

Snopes contacted the archives on the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In an e-mail, Reference Archivist Conor Snow advised our newsroom that the Massachusetts Archives “holds all handed and unpassed laws within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1629-present.” 

Snow really helpful our newsroom search the Massachusetts Basic Courtroom’s web site, which returned seven results for “chowder,” two of which known as for New England clam chowder to be the official state dish or appetizer.  As of this publication, nevertheless, there was no document of a invoice proposed or handed that known as for banning tomatoes in chowder. 

“Wanting on the seven outcomes for chowder on the Basic Courtroom’s web site, it doesn’t seem like any of these payments handed the legislature and have become a handed act/resolve,” wrote Snow. 

At Snow’s advice, we additionally dug by means of the Massachusetts Library digital repository and the state Acts and Resolves internet archive, neither of which returned related outcomes (viewable here and here). Equally, a search by means of the Massachusetts state regulation database didn’t return any outcomes for “chowder.” 

It seems that some on-line customers might have confused Massachusetts with its northern neighbor, Maine, which certainly noticed a authorized spat over chowder elements almost 100 years in the past. 

In Rockland, Maine, the Nineteen Thirties marked years of rivalry, dubbed the “Clam Chowder War“ by the New England Historic Society, after former state Rep. Cleveland Sleeper drafted a invoice that will criminalize placing tomatoes in clam chowder. Responsible offenders, in line with the society, “must dig up a barrel of clams at excessive tide.” 

However the invoice would by no means be debated within the Pine Tree State’s legislature. Mainers selected as an alternative to settle the dispute with a high-profile chowder contest. 

The competition was described in an Related Press article that ran in The Nashua Telegraph on March 4, 1939, titled “Maine Bars Tomatoes From That Clam Chowder.” It learn: 

The epicures, headed by Maine’s Governor, Lewis O. Barrows, gravely sipped the rival concoctions yesterday and solemnly concurred that the tomato-less creation had what it takes to tickle the taster. 

The New England chowder, through which salt pork is de rigueur, was brewed below the supervision of State Consultant Cleveland Sleeper, Jr. of Rockland, who has filed a invoice within the Maine legislature to make it “legal” to “sully” clam chowder with tomatoes. 

The Manhatten was constructed below the watchful eye of Harry Tully, Philadelphia restaurateur and president of the Worldwide Steward’s and Caterer’s affiliation. 

“Ugh,” stated Sleeper, after cautiously tasting the Manhatten, “that is vegetable soup, not clam chowder.” 

“The tomato,” Tully replied with effective scorn, “lends taste to the clam.” 

One of many chowder judges, who on the time served as vice chairman of the American Lodge Affiliation, “noticed that the Manhattan must be dubbed ‘Tomato a la Clam,’ and that the clam was merely an intruder in a very good tomato soup.”  The Telegraph article continued:

Tully and his chef de delicacies Juilius Savineur, smilingly conceded defeat and admitted that the New England standby was supreme. 

“If a clam may vote,” crowed Sleeper in triumph, ” I’d be elected president.”

The Lewiston Each day Solar additionally described the chowder competitors in a March 4, 1939, article titled, “Maine Chowder Wines Over Tomato-Type.” It learn, partly: 

For weeks the differing colleges of chowder thought had argued the deserves or demerits of clam chowder with and with out tomatoes. 

State Consultant Cleveland Sleeper of Rockland, who has facetiously launched a invoice into the Maine Legislature to make ‘tomato air pollution” of the chowder a “crime,” vigorously championed the New England faculty….

Flanked by their cooks right this moment, Tully and Sleeper brewed their favourite recipes within the eating room of a mid-town lodge and appealed to the palates of a distinguished galaxy of chowder epicures, together with Maine’s Governor Barrows, for a verdict. 

If nothing else, this declare serves as proof that the talk over which reigns supreme, New England or Manhattan chowder, is one nonetheless alive and effectively within the hearts of New Englanders (ask any of them).

Snopes has beforehand investigated bizarre and wild legal guidelines that had been allegedly proposed, handed and in some instances repealed, such because the declare that camel hunting is illegal in Arizona, the declare that it is unlawful for Japanese residents “to be fat,” and the declare {that a} California regulation prohibits lodge friends from peeling oranges in their rooms. Learn extra here.

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