Poquahock

     Last week I listed some of the foods unique to New England and I received more than one inquiry as to what exactly "stuffies" were.  My response was simple.  They are made from quahogs.  As you might imagine, that led to another question, "What are quahogs?"  Gee, I thought everyone knew that.
    
     It was over 4 decades ago that I was introduced to the edible marine bivalve mollusk that lives just below the sandy shores of the New England coastline.  It is the largest of a variety of hard clams that ranges from the miniscule countnecks through the littlenecks and topnecks to the cherrystone and finally the rather large quahog, or chowder clam.  I would head out with a clam rake at Point Judith to dig for them when I was a youth counselor at Camp Canonicus in Rhode Island, the same summer that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

      Quahogs are marine animals, yet they cannot survive in water with the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean and tend to live in the bays and shorelines  from Prince Edward Island to the Jersey shore, particularly Rhode Island where the waters are not as salty.  The name is derived from the Naragansett Indian word poquahock which translates as "wages" in English.  That is due to their value and worth, being used as money or wampum among certain Indian tribes in New England.  Many quahogs have distinctive shell patterns like the ones harvested along the shoreline in Wellfleet, MA.  Their lines are in a "W" pattern across the shell.

     Here is a recipe for you to try for Stuffed Spicy Quahogs, or "Stuffies"