Clam Chowder Soup, New England Style - Roland Hemond (General Manager)

RECIPE

1 onion (minced)
saute with 1/2 stick of butter
3 cans Campbell's potato soup
2 cans Campbell's New England Clam Chowder Soup
1 quart half and half cream
3 cans minced clams
1/4 cup sherry
1 can sliced mushrooms (optional)

Combine ingredients in large pot.  Bake in oven at 225 for 4 hours (uncovered).  Stir occasionally if present (not necessary).  Salt and pepper to taste.

 

The 1983 season was the culmination of years of teambuilding by longtime White Sox General Manager Roland Hemond.  He had joined the team's front office in 1970 and the '83 division winning team would earn Hemond an Executive of the Year award, the second in his career.  (He would win a third with Baltimore in 1989.)

 

Although he left the team after 1985, Hemond returned as Executive Advisor to then-GM Ken Williams from 2001-07, and was there for the 2005 World Series championship year.

 

Baseball general managers must be well-practiced in the art of compromise, dealmaking, horsetrading, hustling, sandbagging, turd polishing, and general bullshitting.  They are also practiced in the art of squeezing maximum value from minimum resources.

 

Take this recipe for example.  You'd think a genuine Rhode Islander like Hemond would be able to offer up a genuine, century-old family recipe for authentic clam chowder from scratch.  Don't kid yourself.  A GM doesn't have time to peel potatoes and shuck clams, not with a pack of sports writers baying at his door.

 

Thus, this recipe, whose ingredients are easy to assemble, but come together well to make a thick and genuine tasting chowder.

 

To simplify things even more, it is possible to reduce the amounts and prepare this dish on your stovetop in less than an hour, which is how I prepared it, and I don't think anything was lost.  The mushrooms are a great idea - I'd never had them in a chowder before.

 

FINAL SCORE - the gentleman from New England won't steer you wrong with this dish.