I'll look into this ...

I do know that until a few years ago there was a law against putting tomatoes in *baked beans* in Massachusetts. This was in the news for a few days when a national firm began distributing baked beans in Massachusetts at a lower price than the leading regional firm. The regional firm noted that one of the flavors of the other firm's beans (the vegetarian flavor) had tomatoes and called attention to the obscure state law. The law was changed soon thereafter.

I'll provide a reference for that and look into the chowder question.

Thanks.

There is no law against putting tomatoes in clam chowder in Massachusetts, according to the Boston Globe (8-15-92). There may have been such a law in the past but this may be just another UL.

Illegal, no; but New Englanders (except in Rhode Island) would be displeased to buy or order "clam chowder" and not get the cream-based kind. Where the "Manhattan" or "New York" style is sold it is labeled as such.

In 1939 Maine introduced legislation to ban tomatoes from clam chowder, but it did not pass. Florence Fabrikant, Fair of the Country, New York Times, May 18, 1986, sec. 10, p.8.

If you're interested, one of many articles on the Massachusetts baked bean controversy: Baked Beans Fight Boiling, Chicago Tribune, July 15, 1993, Food section, p. 3.

Thanks.

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There is no law against putting tomatoes in clam chowder in Massachusetts

Illegal, no; but New Englanders (except in Rhode Island) would be displeased to buy or order "clam chowder" and not get the cream-based kind.

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Being from MA, I can assure you that you can[/d] buy Manhattan clam chowder here, but no respectable person [b]would.

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I do know that until a few years ago there was a law against putting tomatoes in *baked beans* in Massachusetts

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So what is in American baked beans? In Britain, baked beans are practically defined as being beans in tomato sauce. I suppose I'm taking it on trust that the tomato sauce actually has tomatoes in it, though...

Boston Baked Beans

2 cups dried pea beans
6 cups water
¼ pound lean salt pork
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup light molasses
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon sugar

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Originally posted by Sara at home:
I was watching that ubiquitous game show this evening and one of the questions had to do with the color of Manhattan clam chowder. My immediate response was you can't put tomatoes in clam chowder in Massachusetts. And light and buzzers went off on my head. Is that a UL or a real law? Is there really actual law about putting tomatoes in clam chowder?

Sara "food again" A

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Old thread, but it reminded me that in my home town of Gainesville ("Poultry Capital of the World"), Georgia, there was a city ordinance back in the late fifties/early sixties that proclaimed it illegal to eat fried chicken with the aid of any utensils (you pick it up in your fingers, that's how). When the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in town opened, the venerable Col. Sanders himself came to town, ate some chicken with a plastic fork, and was arrested. Being an impressionable child, I thought our local cops had actually lost their minds and put a famous person in jail, not realizing the whole thing was a publicity stunt.