Issues → January/February 2007 → Food →
Best Cook: Johnnycake and Chowder
Barbara Stetson is queen of Rhode Island's johnnycakes
by Edie Clark
The scents of a hot griddle and sauteed onions fill the kitchen of Barbara Stetson's 18th-century North Scituate house. Barbara is known locally as the Johnnycake Queen, which, in a state in love with johnnycakes, is tantamount to being the queen of all.
Barbara calls herself "a good plain cook" who wants to show people how they can make good things fast. She is in the midst of making chowder, a very good thing. "People don't have the time," she says. "They want to be able to make something that's quick with ingredients they have on hand. They want something that's good."
She already has the onions jumping at the bottom of a Dutch oven. To her left, a row of johnnycakes sizzle on the griddle.
Hers is a life of food, a life in service to food. Barbara's house is crammed with some 2,000 vintage cookbooks. "Who's counting? I just know I've never seen a cookbook I didn't want." Once, she and her husband went into a bookstore and she came out without buying a cookbook. "There weren't any in there I didn't have," Barbara told him. "It's time for you to write one," her husband replied.
Barbara's Island Cookbook is a collection of her favorite recipes. It has sold 40,000 copies, many mailed out to stores and other venues from her kitchen table. "I started just doing Rhode Island, but I went on to the rest of the islands -- Prudence and Patience, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket. People on the islands like to cook, and they're creative with what they have."
Her chowder is salty and of the sea. The johnnycakes come smothered in a creamy white sauce laden with smoked salmon and peas. (She whipped this up at the same time she made the chowder and the cakes.) I leave the house well satisfied, lugging bags of food offerings. "No one ever leaves here empty-handed," she says. Or hungry.
RECIPES
Reader Comments
Comment from Carol Londres on February 19, 2009
These are the best two recipes I've seen together in a long time. I can't wait to try them; Frank , my late husband, would have loved the Mussels. I hope to buy Stetson's book but living in Canada now, it's proven difficult to even obtain 'Yankee Magazine'. For someone who lived in Massachusetts and Texas almost 20 years, it's tough to revert to borders that do divide. My computer offers the freedom to connect. Hopefully in time, Yankee Magazine will be obtainable.
Comment from Anne FitzGerald on February 22, 2009
Hi Carol, I'm living in Belgium with my hubby (born and raised in RI). You can subscribe to Yankee. We are receiving it in our mailbox for over 20 years now. You keep in touch with your home country this way. Give it a try Hun, it's nice to read about all the nice things. Good Luck Anne
Comment from Anne FitzGerald on February 22, 2009
Two lovely recipes, going to try make them. The mussel chowder for hubby and the johnny cakes for me. I can't have any shell fish
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