Rocky Point Clam Chowder

Rocky Point Clam Chowder is a pale pink thick seafood soup.

It contains salt pork, onions, potatoes, paprika, puréed tomatoes, quahog clams, crushed pilot crackers, and clam juice.

Though it uses tomatoes like Manhattan chowder, it differs in that it's thicker, a paler red, uses a lot of clam juice, and has paprika.

Old potatoes are used, because they are starchier than new potatoes, and so help to thicken the soup.

History Notes

The recipe originated or was at least popularized at Rocky Point Amusement Park on Narragansett Bay in Warwick, Rhode Island, where it was served in the Rocky Point Shore Dinner Hall.

The Hall could seat over 1,000 people at very long tables, with people sitting at either side.

Big pots of Rocky Point Clam Chowder were placed on the tables, and people helped themselves. It was served with clam cakes.

The dining hall and neighbouring amusement park were destroyed in September 1938 by a hurricane. It reopened after the war in 1946, but was destroyed again by hurricane in 1954,

A rebuilt version was so big -- able to seat 20,000 people at once -- that it was called the "Chowderdome."

It was finally closed in 1996.

The recipe is now public.