• Maryland Beaten Biscuits

    Note: yes these look ugly. The recipe is almost 200 years old and had no measurements. Of course your biscuits are better; that wasn’t really the point here. In December of 1953, Governor Theodore McKeldin and his wife Honolulu “Lulu” Manzer McKeldin celebrated the holiday season by serving guests a “typical Maryland dinner.” The menu…

  • Corn Bread with Rice

    There’s no camping like fall camping! And there’s no better camp bread than cornbread. Once again I turned to Mrs. B.C. Howard for a good camp recipe… if this could even be called a recipe. Really this is just a list of ingredients: Dry rice you say? Well okay. I mixed the dry ingredients ahead…

  • Interview: John Shields

    By the time “The Chesapeake Bay Cookbook: Rediscovering the Pleasures of a Great Regional Cuisine” was published in the early 1990s, Maryland Chesapeake cuisine’s star had nearly faded into obscurity (as the title suggests). Mid-century cookbooks such as Mrs. J. Millard Tawes’ “Favorite Maryland Recipes” and the edited and updated edition of Mrs. B.C. Howard’s…

  • “Cymlings”

    According to culinary historian Michael Twitty, cymlings “have a special place in early African American history as they were one of the few squash commonly grown and consumed by the enslaved community.” And certainly this recipe hails from a plantation where that fact is relevant. “The Plains” (also known as Ophan’s Gift, demolished in 1958)…

  • PawPaw Cream Pie

    Update: Go to this post for a better recipe or Pawpaw Pretzel Pie I made this pie twice this year. Once with very ripe fruit and once with the ripebut firm and white flesh seen above. I strongly recommend the latter. If you are lucky enough to find some farmed paw-paws then this pie will…