Talk about comfort food: chowders, stews, savory pies, hash, baked beans and brown bread are the backbone of New England regional cookery. Although the coast is known for its delicious seafood (lobster, clams, oysters, and cod and haddock), the real story of the New England states is hearty and make-do. James Beard, writing about New England in 1970, called it “the corner of the continent where American cooking began.” It’s a straightforward style that translates well with contemporary chefs seeking a local or seasonal connection to the land.

Born of hardship and cold weather, the traditional food of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts is often about “putting by”—salting pork, drying or smoking cod, corning beef, making pickles or canning peaches, sugaring maple sap and drying beans. The flavors of these sustenance foods, as well as such staples as molasses, root vegetables, and corn meal, got into peoples’ souls, and they still inform the cooking of New England today.

Take chowder, for instance, surely one of New England’s most famous exports. Whether made with clams, fish, corn—or almost anything, for that matter—many a traditional Yankee chowder recipe starts with salt pork, and may be finished with condensed milk—the sort of ingredients that could be carried aboard a sailing ship, or sustain a body during a long winter. (Talk about the original shelf life!)

Warmer weather represents a bounty of seasonal foods: cranberries and blueberries, apples, fresh-dug clams and fish of all kinds, abundant poultry and game, and beautiful garden-fresh vegetables, from asparagus to zucchini. Contemporary New England restaurants like Aura in Boston and Victory 96 State Street in Portsmouth, NH, showcase this profusion with such signatures as asparagus soup with finnan haddie (smoked haddock), grilled Rhode Island squid with charred tomato vinaigrette, and maple-glazed pork tenderloin with cider reduction and scalloped apples.

Many traditional New England foods seem ripe for creative interpretation, in fact, including:

Savory pies – Yankee cooks are known for their skill as bakers, but some of their specialties aren’t for dessert (the original “mincemeat,” in fact, was a centuries-old technique for preserving meat in a strong solution of sugar). From chicken pie topped with biscuits to the seafood pies of the coast (often topped with buttered, crushed crackers or breadcrumbs), the thrift of these savory creations inspired the trendy-again potpie.

Stuffies – Legacy of the Portuguese fisherman who made Rhode Island and coastal Massachusetts their home, these stuffed quahog clams are often filled with such ingredients as bacon or chorizo sausage, along with chopped clams, onions and other seasoning.

Boiled Dinner – The no-nonsense name belies the soul satisfaction of this iconic specialty, which is well-known among the Irish as corned beef and cabbage. Made with cured beef or smoked pork shoulder—traditional “Cape Cod Boiled Dinner” starts with salt cod—and winter vegetables like cabbage, potatoes, carrots and beets, it resembles the French pot au feu as it may have been translated by the settles of “New France” (now Vermont and the province of Quebec). Leftover corned beef and potatoes would likely show up in hash the following morning.

Green Tomato Relish, Mustard Pickle and Piccalilli – New Englanders are famous for the pickles and preserves, which originally converted the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables into “canned goods” for the winter pantry. With trading ships sailing the Atlantic between the Old World and the New, spices like turmeric, mustard seed, and ginger were fairly commonplace, and used to flavor these characteristic condiment-relishes made with such fresh vegetables as green tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, gherkins and onions.

Indian Pudding – The ultimate pantry-based New England dessert, Indian pudding is a comforting, old-fashioned concoction made with cornmeal, milk, molasses, and—more elaborately—eggs, sugar, butter, and cinnamon or ginger. Like Italian polenta, it has a pleasingly granular texture, and can be served warm with hard sauce, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Jonnycake (a.k.a. johnnycake) – Another dish made with cornmeal, this flat griddlecake (thought to be the precursor to the pancake and remarkably similar to a tortilla) may have indeed been taken on many a “journey.” In Vermont and New Hampshire, johnnycake batter is sometimes covered with melted butter and baked in the oven, but in Rhode Island—which has adopted the dish as its own—the slightly sweetened batter is always fried.