Eleanor Dove’s recipe for Raccoon Pot Pie was so beloved, so well-known, that it is now preserved in the Congressional Book of Records, according to her great-granddaughter. Eleanor and her husband Ferris Dove, both members of the Narragansett tribe, opened the Dovecrest Restaurant on this site in 1963 as a steakhouse. They soon began serving more traditional Narragansett foods based on recipes from Eleanor’s father.
\nPeople came from all over the country to try the Dovecrest’s buffalo steak, rabbit stew, succotash, venison, and especially johnnycakes--the best in the world, as a 1981 New York Times article concluded.
\nAfter several decades of culinary success, the Dovecrest Restaurant closed and the Tomaquag Museum took over its space. Today, museum visitors learn about Indigenous ways of fishing, hunting, and agricultural practices on the same spot where they used to eat johnnycakes.
\nMany of the foods Rhode Islanders consider unique to the Ocean State’s heritage date from before the arrival of Roger Williams and other European colonists. Indigenous peoples, like the Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc, had complex foodways that continue to influence Rhode Island cuisine.
\nAlthough the Dovecrest Restaurant no longer exists, curious cooks can recreate Eleanor’s Quahog Chowder from the recipe below. Clam chowder can be a contentious topic around these parts. While the so-called New England version is creamy and thick, the Manhattan version is tomato-based. Rhode Island clam chowder, on the other hand, more closely resembles the Dovecrest’s--a clear broth, rich with salt pork, potatoes, and local quahog clams. Since dairy and tomatoes did not exist in New England prior to contact with European settlers, one might say that the Dovecrest Quahog Chowder is indeed the most Rhode Island of them all.
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","Many Rhode Islanders are offended by the notion of a tomato-based “Manhattan” clam chowder, disparagingly referring to it as “clam soup.”
","Dovecrest Quahog Chowder
\nIngredients:
½ pound salt pork
1 large onion
2 large potatoes (2 cups diced)
2 cups shucked quahog clams (from 4 quarts whole cherrystone clams, or 2 cans chopped clams, drained)
2 cups clam juice (bottled if using canned clams)
2 tablespoons butter
Directions:
Dice salt pork into fine dice (This is easier if you partially freeze it first).
Fry salt pork over low heat to render out the fat.
If using whole clams, steam over a little water to open, cool, remove meats, and reserve juice. Dice up meats. If using canned clams, don’t use their canning liquid in the soup.
Dice onions and potatoes.
Add onions to salt pork and fry until light brown.
Add potatoes and water to cover, up to 2 cups.
Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.
Add clams, clam juice, butter, and a little more water.
Simmer 15-20 minutes
Serve with oyster crackers.