Massachusetts has plenty of things to be proud of including being the home state of delicious treats including chocolate chip cookies, Hoodsie Cups, Fluff, apple cider doughnuts, Cape Cod Potato Chips, Squeeze Soda (invented in Berkshire County, Adams to be exact), and many more items, too many to mention here.

One delicious food Massachusetts residents take very seriously is New England Clam Chowder. According to Eater.com, the following is the definition of New England Clam Chowder:

New England clam chowder is defined as a thick chowder made from clams, potatoes, onions, sometimes salt pork, and milk or cream. The recipe usually calls for heavy cream, light cream, or whole milk as the base for the soup. This addition of milk or cream — producing the soup's unmistakable white color — is the biggest difference between the New England style and all the rest.

One thing you won't find many New England Clam Chowder purists doing to their masterpiece recipes is adding tomatoes to their clam chowder dishes. Most folks in Massachusetts and across New England call this blasphemy and you would probably be ostracized from the community if you were caught adding tomatoes to the dish. As a matter of fact, if you do some searching online you'll find information regarding a 1939 bill that was passed in Massachusetts making it illegal to include tomatoes in clam chowder recipes here in the Bay State.

Get our free mobile app

What side of the fence are you on? Do you prefer tomatoes in your clam chowder and lean toward the Manhattan-style or are you a New England purist who keeps tomatoes as far away from clam chowder as possible? If it's the former, you may want to pack your bags and relocate to New York.

RELATED: Since we're talking about food, check out some food history here. 

LOOK: Food history from the year you were born

From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.
 

Which restaurant is your favorite? 

50 Most Popular Chain Restaurants in America

YouGov investigated the most popular dining brands in the country, and Stacker compiled the list to give readers context on the findings. Read on to look through America's vast and divergent variety of restaurants—maybe you'll even find a favorite or two.

More From WBEC FM