Start by draining the water out of the canned clams into your stock pot. Add about 1½ L of water and a couple of sachets of chicken bouillon (1½ tsp). Add 1/4 cup of white wine. Turn on to a slow boil. Lightly salt the stock with table salt.

Peel and cube 2 or 3 large potatoes. Add them to your stock. Top up with enough water to be sure that the potatoes are fully immersed if need be. At the same time, par-cook 3-4 pieces of bacon. You don't want to fully cook the bacon, only about 3⁄4 as it will finish cooking in the soup and you don’t want it to get crispy. When they are ready, cut into about 1 inch pieces and add them to the stock.

Finely slice 1 or 2 sticks of celery and add to the stock. Add your clams when the potatoes are still firm but almost cooked. Stir everything well.

Reduce the heat to medium and add about 1 litre of 1/2 and 1/2 cream. Your chowder should be looking very white at this point. I don't like to let it boil at all after adding the cream. Let the soup simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

As your chowder is settling down and thickening from the cream, whisk about three tablespoons of flour into about 2 cups of water. Slowly add this, a bit at a time, to your chowder until you get the desired silky smooth consistency. If you’re not going to be freezing any down, you could use cornstarch instead of flour. However flour-based soups thaw better than cornstarch in soups.

Salt and pepper to taste. I like freshly ground sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.