Best Fish Chowder Recipes

Today marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Political commentators are musing on the president’s enduring legacy; gossips are surmising about his alleged affairs; conspiracy theorists continue to pore over the Warren Report. As for us—we find ourselves wondering what the former president liked to eat.

Fortunately, the Kennedy Library provides an answer. In March 1961, a handicapped girl named Lynn Jennings wrote to Kennedy asking what he liked to eat. “Please reply to her, ” Kennedy’s secretary advised in a handwritten memo. “She will be extremely happy. Do not mention anything in the letter about her handicap please!”

Kennedy passed along the recipe for New England Fish Chowder, one of his favorite dishes. You can see it below—dig that sturdy ‘60s typeface!—and make it in his honor. If your chowder druthers lie elsewhere, try our New England Clam Chowder, pictured above, or our Corn and Crab Chowder. (Next week, you can put your leftover turkey to good use by making some Turkey-Sage Chowder.)