April 2016 - OLD LINE PLATE

Salad Dressing, Two Methods

April 27, 2016January 13, 2019

“A Spanish proverb says to make a good salad, four persons are necessary — A spendthrift, for oil; a miser, for vinegar; a barrister, for salt; and a madman to stir it up” – Tested Maryland Recipes

Unless you’re a die-hard salad fan, you probably haven’t been thinking to yourself “hell yeah it’s Salad Season!” For the most part you can get decent passable salad-makings year round.

Like so many things, salad used to be at the mercy of the seasons. A lot of the choice lettuces and herbs are “old world” – and though they’ve been here since the colonial days, they don’t appreciate the Maryland summer heat.

About this time of year in the 19th century, wealthy ladies were wowing their guests with artfully arranged salads served between dinner and dessert. Mary Randolph recommended gathering the lettuce and herbs early in the morning, and crisping the greens in cold (preferably ice) water before dressing. Other 19th century guides offered similar, if less precise, instructions:

“The Queen of the Kitchen, Old Maryland Receipts”, M.L. Tyson, 1874

Washed vegetables were sometimes dried with centrifugal force, just as they are in a salad spinner. This was done by placing them in a special basket and swinging it around.

An 1890 book lists a large assortment of ingredients that could make up this type of salad:

Salads — For these procure mustard and cress, borage, chervil, lettuce, parsley, mint, purslane, chives, burnet, nasturtium leaves and buds, fennel, sorrel, tarragon, corn salad, dandelions, chicory, escarole; water cresses, green onions, celery, leeks, lettuce, very young spinach leaves, the tender leaves of oyster plant, fresh mushrooms, young marshmallow shoots, and the fresh sprouts of winter turnips; also radishes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, very young turnips, green peppers, and fresh tomatoes. Salad vegetables which can be cooked and allowed to cool and then made into salads are potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, kohl-rabi, artichokes, string beans, green peas, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, spinach, dried haricot beans, Lima beans, lentils, and leeks; among the fruits are apples, pears, oranges, lemons, muskmelons, currants, gooseberries and barberries. – The New Practical Housekeeping, Estelle Wilcox, 1890

So… everything.

According to “Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine” by David S. Shields, popular lettuce varieties around the Baltimore area in the 1870s included butter lettuce, Simpson, and “curled Silesia.” He asserts that “both lettuce and celery… cultivated in Maryland [were] deemed of superior quality.”

vintage seed packet, ebay

For this post I tried out two types of classic salad dressings. The first recipe, for boiled dressing, was submitted to “Eat Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” by D. Charles Winebrener of Frederick County.

Boiled salad dressing is basically an alternative to mayonnaise-based dressing, and the predecessor of ranch. Boiled dressing is typically used for potato salads and cole slaw, but worked nicely with kale for a week’s worth of lunches.

Both of these dressings can be seasoned to taste with herbs and spices, and I opted to use a little ground chipotle powder in each.

I served the second dressing in in a somewhat more traditional salad based on the suggestions of Mary Randolph.

In her recipe she lays out, in typical great detail, her feelings on salad presentation:

“The Virginia Housewife: Or, Methodical Cook”, Mary Randolph, 1827

I also referenced my Maryland lady Mrs. B. C. Howard’s method. As is often the case, her treatments contain less seasonings than Randolph’s. The addition of a little sugar by Randolph is the mark of such an experienced cook.

“Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen”, Mrs. Benjamin Chew Howard, 1881

Edible oils used uncooked in this manner were sometimes generically called “salad oil.” I wondered about the oil available to these 19th century cooks. We can assume that even the gentry of this era consumed their fair share of rancid oils. Olive oil was available at the time, often known as “sweet oil.”

On the eve of the Revolution, a 1768 assembly in Annapolis called for a boycott of most goods imported from England.

Several Maryland counties entered into a resolution of non-importation of British “superfluities” and vowed to cease the import of horses, wine, beer, ale, beef, pork, butter, cheese, candles, refined sugar, and oil, “except salad oil.”

1769 Advertisement, Maryland Gazette, Annapolis

In the early 1800′s or late 1700′s, sunflower oil was developed and was sometimes used as an alternative to olive oil. In 1830, one national newspaper reported that “sun flower oil is likely to become an article of extensive manufacture in this country,” claiming that at “a large dinner party in the neighborhood of Baltimore recently .. a Salad, dressed with Sun-flower oil was eaten, and pronounced to be excellently well dressed, nobody expecting it not to be Olive Oil.”

Around that same time, in 1829, corn oil was discovered, “by accident in preparing mash for distillation.“ According to “corn.org” corn oil didn’t go into commercial production until 1889.

I strongly preferred the hard-boiled egg dressing for both flavor and convenience. I might just make this one a regular. What can I say – there is a reason Mary Randolph is a Southern Classic.

Boiled Salad Dressing

3 eggs, separated
1 cup of cream or half & half
¼ cup vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt

Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, and slowly heat in a double boiler with vinegar, mustard, and pepper. Slowly stir in cream and continue to heat. When thick, stir in salt. Whisk constantly as it cools.

Recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland

kale, onion, tomato, black beans, cheddar cheese, rabbit meat, corn chips

~~~

“To Dress Salad”

2 eggs, hard-boiled
2 tb oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp mustard
2 tb vinegar

Combine mustard and vinegar and set aside. Mash yolk and slowly mix in oil before adding dry ingredients, then slowly adding vinegar/mustard mixture.

Recipe adapted from “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” and “The Virginia Housewife”

spring mix, onion, egg white, lovage leaves

Lamb Chops Brasseur, Edwina Booth

April 22, 2016January 13, 2019

“There is, assuredly, no other country on earth in which Shakespeare and the Bible are held in such general high esteem as in America … If you were to enter an isolated log cabin in the Far West and even if its inhabitant were to exhibit many of the traces of backwoods living … you will certainly find the Bible and in most cases also some cheap edition of the works of the poet Shakespeare.” – Karl Knortz, 1880’s

The popularity of Shakespeare with 19th century audiences seemingly has no modern parallel. Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville assessed that “there [was] hardly a pioneer’s hut that [did] not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare” during his travels in 1830’s America. Ragtag troupes of actors traveled the frontiers to perform on makeshift stages for pioneers, gold-miners, and businessmen alike. Audiences were known to be intimately and passionately familiar with the Bard, memorizing lines and offering vocal judgement during performances. In 1849, a riot broke out at a New York opera house during a Shakespearean showdown between English actor William Charles Macready and his American counterpart, Edwin Forrest. Class tensions and nationalism erupted into violence and chaos. Militia intervened with deadly results.

Around the year of that riot, Edwin Booth, a 16-year old actor who’d been named after Forrest, was performing with his actor father on nearby American stages. The young actor would grow to surpass his namesake in Shakespearean achievement, but that accomplishment remains overshadowed to this day by the fact that his brother shot and killed president Abraham Lincoln.

The lives of the Booth family were filled with drama to rival the roles they played on the stage. Like many families, they were torn apart by the Civil War. After his brother assassinated the president, it is said that Edwin (and presumably his reputation) took some comfort in the fact that, by bizarre coincidence, he had saved Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert from being hit by a train a year or so before the assassination.

History may remember Edwin as the brother of John Wilkes Booth first and foremost, but his Shakespearean triumphs are not undocumented. “The greatest Hamlet of the 19th century” doesn’t exactly imply a household name at any rate.

Tudor Hall, Maryland Historical Trust

The Booth brothers were born in Bel Air Maryland at an estate known as Tudor Hall. Although Edwin didn’t reside there for long, the house remains associated with -and some say haunted by– the Booth family.

Edwin Booth’s daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, devoted much energy to honoring her father’s legacy. In 1894 she penned a book of recollections, including snippets from letters while Edwin was on the road. She also contributed several ‘Tudor Hall’ recipes to “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.”

I inaugurated grilling season by making “Lamb Chop Brasseur,” a simple if confusingly named treatment for lamb wherein it is seasoned with cayenne pepper, buttered and grilled and then drizzled with lemon juice and more butter. According to Edwina, Edwin “was fond of Southern cooking and employed colored cooks by preference.”

Edwin Booth with daughter Edwina, National Portrait Gallery

The lamb chops turned out delicious and were juicy enough that I omitted the called for “gravy of butter” when serving. I also opted for adding the lemon juice during grilling so as not to overpower the chops. Remaining juice can be used on side dishes such as grilled vegetables.

Tudor Hall has just recently been opened again to the public and is hosting guided tours and historic programming, including lectures about “the Genius of Edwin Booth”, Tudor Hall’s most esteemed -if not most famous- son.

Recipe:

lamb chops
cayenne pepper
salt
butter
juice of 1 lemon
black pepper

Season lamb chops with cayenne pepper and salt. Butter on both sides and cook over hot charcoals or in the broiler, turning once. When chops are nearly done, drizzle with lemon juice and move to medium heat to finish cooking. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland

Delane Brown’s Casserole of Ham and Hominy + Jelly Roll

April 15, 2016February 10, 2022

“Canned vegetables are not only a great convenience to the housewife, but when fresh, young products are used and canned under careful supervision by modern methods; they retain more of their food value and vitamine content than most freshly cooked vegetables. This has been recently proved by investigations carried on in nutrition laboratories.
Therefore, the housewife who is watchful for the health of her family, will see to it that their diet contains carefully selected canned vegetables.” – Delane Brown

In the late 1920′s a local purveyor of “fine foods” published a little cookbook featuring recipes for the products they produced and distributed. “Delane Brown’s Cook Book: Good Things to Eat and How to Serve Them” is decorated on the cover with an illustration of faceted plates fit for a fine occasion. Below the title is a shelf of containers which surely contain only the finest spices and the purest, freshest ingredients.

Delane Brown boasted that the Purity Cross products they carried were “carefully selected” and “packed the very day they leave the farm.” At the time of this book’s publication, regulation had weeded out most of the outright toxic and mislabeled food products, leaving the market to sort out what consumers wanted other than to not be poisoned. The quest for purity reached ever onward and upward and canning technology advanced steadily.

Delane Brown promotional mailer

Where a generation before was probably content to survive the winter without scurvy, consumers of the 1920’s faced an exciting array of options ranging from novel fruits of other climate zones to New Jersey-based Purity Cross’ signature shelf-stable cream sauces in the form of “Lobster á la Newburg,” “Welsh Rarebit,” and “Chicken á la King.”

Delane Brown encouraged housewives to carefully prepare Purity Cross canned delicacies in presentations that presaged the comical heights of mid-century home-making, complete with toast points, parsley sprigs, “little triangular slices of lemon”, and served (of course) with Delane Brown’s own “Sweet Ku-Kumber Rings.”

The aspirational tone of some of the recipes in the book may be amusing in light of a modern middle-class distaste for canned food, but adventurous cooks have always aimed to impress and to adapt to new ideas.

This little cookbook has consumed a completely disproportionate amount of my time; my research bordered on obsession. Who the %*&! is Delane Brown? What do these products look like? Whatever became of Delane Brown?

What little I did find is that:

In 1924, “down in Baltimore, a chap by the name of Delane Brown [was] apparently doing a good business selling salted peanuts by mail,” according to a peanut industry publication.
A trip to the Maryland Historical Society to get a glimpse of the face of Delane Brown led to me staring at several photos of a box of figs and nothing more. Since this photo had been kindly retrieved for me and I had donned the requisite nitrile gloves, I stared at these figs for as long as possible with a feigned sense of purpose
The person behind Delane Brown actually appears to be a businessman named George Dugdale, who has been quoted in a number of trade publications about the mail-order business and advertising.
The address in the cookbook is ‘1501 Guilford Avenue’; Delane Brown’s business was located in the famous “Copy Cat Building”
The company later moved to Towson, and probably went out of business in 1956
George Dugdale passed away in December 1960
George Dugdale’s wife was named Dorothy Elaine. “D. Elaine.” This is what I wasted hours of my life for?!?!?!
Mrs. Dugdale was an avid golfer

I didn’t go all out and make one of the more fancy or bizarre recipes in “Good Things to Eat.” I live in a world where canned Welsh Rarebit is difficult to find on short notice. I opted instead to make a dish involving another item distributed by Delane Brown, Smithfield Ham, combined with a classic Baltimore canned product, hominy.

I couldn’t find Manning’s hominy at Safeway. I was going to write a little bit more about hominy but look how much space I’ve wasted already. We’ll save that for another day. I served the dish with canned green beans, undoubtedly picked at their peak of freshness. They tasted like salt. I also took a stab at Delane Brown’s “new way” of making a jelly roll, filled by my choice with lemon curd, hand-curdled just moments after falling from the tree.

Recipes:

Casserole of Ham and Hominy

3 cups cooked hominy
4 tb butter
4 tb flour
2 cups milk
¼ cup chopped onion
3 cups chopped Smithfield Ham

Make a white sauce from the butter, flour and milk and add the onions to it. Put a layer of hominy in a buttered baking dish, cover with a layer of the white sauce and spread with ham. Repeat the layers of hominy, sauce and ham until all are used, having the hominy on top. [yeah I failed this part – ed] Bake in a moderately hot oven – 350 to 375 degrees – for thirty minutes or until beginning to brown. Serve hot.

Jelly Roll

3 eggs
3 tb sugar
3 tb flour
½ tsp baking powdr
1 glass jelly

Beat the egg yolks until very light and foamy. Add the sugar and beat again until well blended. Sift the flour with the baking powder and add to the egg mixture. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in. Pour the batter into a well buttered shallow pan about ten inches wide and about twelve to fourteen inches long. Bake in a moderate oven – 350 degrees – for eight to ten minutes, remove from oven and turn pan upside down until cold. Then lay on a sheet of paper. Spread with jelly and roll up. Sprinkle the outside with powdered sugar or spread with icing. This recipe defies all the old rules for jelly roll, but try it once and you will not want to use any other. Do not add any more sugar or flour even if you think then amount given is too small.

An emphasis on purity and finery continues

Recipes from “Delane Brown’s Cook Book: Good Things to Eat and How to Serve Them”

Mike Devereaux’s Cheese Macaroni Medley (plus bonus dog biscuits)

April 4, 2016January 13, 2019

On Opening Day, April 4th 1994, Orioles fans had high hopes and looming apprehensions. Optimists were focusing on the belief that the Orioles were “finally ready to win,” but the season ended prematurely with the unforgettable strike.

In the days running up to Opening Day, the Sun ran its usual stories about food and beer.

Smoked Salmon Lasagna was on the menu in the club boxes. Down below, 40,000 lbs of hot dogs were ordered for opening week. It was announced that the stadium had added coffee kiosks for the specialty coffee drinks that “are so popular these [those?] days.”

The Sun caused a minor scare by reporting that National Bohemian would not be served, which is weird because the exact same mistaken freakout happened this year (2016).

Oriole Park has never been the most innovative food-wise, so there’s not too much humor and nostalgia in the stadium food news of the past.

A better look at the times is the 1994 edition of “Gourmet Bird Feed,” a cookbook occasionally published by the “Orioles Wives” to benefit Johns Hopkins Children’s center.

The book lists the favorite meals and Baltimore restaurants of all of the players, and provides players’ favorite recipes. Brady Anderson’s is the most 90s to me with “Smoked Salmon and Avocado Salad”, because I think the early 1990s were just a real Southern California time to be alive.

Cal’s answers are more sparse than the other players, although his mom Vi shared Cal stories and recipes for Gingersnaps and Turkey Pot Pie.

I ultimately decided on making both of the recipes shared by outfielder Mike Devereaux. One was his mother’s recipe for “Cheese Macaroni Medley,” an appetizing casserole of ground beef, vegetables and macaroni.
The other was dog biscuits for his Chocolate Lab, Hershel.

The latter recipe was far more fussy and fancy, but luckily for me the MOM’s in the Rotunda is FINALLY open. They had almost everything I needed except for “cracked wheat.” I opted for a different Bob’s Red Mill hot cereal that had oatmeal and other things, all of which I researched for dog safety. Definitely not for the grain-free dog diet but all full of fiber. If you are a dog owner, you probably know whether or not your dog needs more fiber.

“Gourmet Bird Feed” doesn’t appear to be the most thoroughly-proofread cookbook, and the casserole recipe confusingly listed green onions as an ingredient but called them green peppers in the recipe instructions. I’m sure either would do just fine. If I made this again, I would use two cups of macaroni instead of one. For the sake of full disclosure, I added some dried chipotle powder at the sauce stage. No regrets. Delicious meal.

Although I remember Devereaux well, his decade-long major league career offered only brief glory, much of it during his time with the Orioles. By the time the strike began, it was already in question whether he would ever play for the Orioles again.

He did so in 1996, but it was only for a year within a series of one-year contracts with various teams before his final season in 1998. He went on to field coach for the Delmarva Shorebirds and the Frederick Keys.

According to Wikipedia, “he is the second all-time career leader for
home runs by a player born in Wyoming.” I love unnecessary baseball facts like that.

In
a 2009 article in the Baltimore Sun he diplomatically said “The people
[of Baltimore] were the greatest. They cheered me in the good times and
booed me when they had to. Every time I come back there, the fans recall
things that I don’t even remember.”

Recipes:

Cheese Macaroni Medley

1 cup elbow macaroni
1 lb ground beef
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 cup green onion (or green pepper), chopped
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained
2 tb butter
2 tb flour
½ tsp salt
2 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheddar, divided
14oz can of sliced baby tomatoes, drained (I could only find diced)

Cook
macaroni in boiling salted water until almost tender. Drain well. In a
skillet, cook beef with salt and pepper until about 2/3 browned then add
onion, [green thing] and mushrooms. Stir and continue cooking until all
beef is browned. Drain excess fat, set aside.
In a saucepan, melt
butter and stir in flour and ½ tsp salt. Add milk gradually, cooking
until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in 2.5 cups of the cheese.
Combine with meat mixture and then gently fold in macaroni. Pour into
11×7 casserole dish and top with tomatoes and remaining cheese. Bake at
350°

until cheese is melted.

Hershel’s Dog Biscuits

2/4 cup flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
1 cup cornmeal
½ cup nonfat dry milk
4 tsp salt
1 dry yeast package
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups cracked wheat
1 egg and 1 tb of milk beaten together, for brushing tops

Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup of warm water. Add stock and set aside.
Combine
all dry ingredients, then mix in the stock/yeast. Roll out on a floured
surface & cut with a cookie cutter. Place on un-greased cookie
sheets, brush each with beaten egg mixture. Bake for 45 minutes at 300°.
“Leave in oven overnight to get bone hard.”

Recipes adapted from “Gourmet Bird Feed” produced by the Orioles Wives

Maple looks concerned because the cat is out of frame to the left.

Chicken (À La) Maryland

April 1, 2016November 13, 2023

This week I finally took a stab at “Chicken À La Maryland,” a dish famously served (or intended to be served) aboard the Titanic. For months, since I first made “Maryland Fried Chicken,” I’ve been aware of this other incarnation known as “Chicken Maryland” or “Chicken À La Maryland.” I got the impression that this was more known in England than in the United States, let alone Maryland. I could never quite pin down what it was supposed to be, and I still can’t.

B&O Railroad Menu Various recipes and mentions list the dish as something similar to Maryland Fried Chicken, but served with banana and/or corn fritters. Bananas are associated with Maryland, I’m told, because of Baltimore’s history as a port town that imported a lot of bananas. According to “America Cooks: Practical Recipes from 48 States”, published in 1940: “’À La Maryland’ now signifies ‘served with a sauce of butter and cream.’” So that’s pretty vague… Recently I was reading “Dining on the B & O” by Thomas J. Greco and Karl D. Spence and I saw a recipe for ‘Chicken Maryland.’ “This is the one I should make,” I thought, drawing a parallel between the grandiosity and luxury of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad dining car service with the atmosphere of the ill-fated Titanic.

Titanic First Class Menu During its existence from 1881 through 1971, “the [B & O] Dining Car and Commissary Department rarely turned a profit, but the railroad believed that if it provided superior dining and impeccable courtesy, it would attract passengers, shippers and investors,” as stated in “Dining on the B & O.” Just looking at the ornate 1927 B & O “Centenary” china, you can almost hear the clattering of plates, and imagine the militantly attentive waitstaff standing expectantly in crisply starched white uniforms. Most passengers would hardly even deign to imagine the cramped but meticulously organized kitchen, everything in its (small) place, engineered for efficiency. Nor did many of the passengers likely consider the professionalism and talent of the chefs in the kitchen – in our modern era of celebrity chefs it is something to consider the iron chef challenge of producing gourmet meals out of a train car, multiple meals a day, day after day.

B & O “Centenary” china According to “Dining on the B & O”, many of the railroad’s recipes were originally sourced from Charles Fellows’ 1904 book “The Culinary Handbook.” The Handbook’s author had a disdain for the affectation of “a la” and thus the recipe is listed here as “Chicken Maryland.” Ultimately, the recipe is derived from that book as well as multiple versions of the B&O’s culinary references and chefs’ notes. B&O didn’t serve their chicken à la Maryland with bananas, and neither did I. I opted for corn fritters, for which the recipe is included in the book, also sourced from Fellows. Based on the different B & O “General Notice” manuals, the chicken in this dish may have been fried or baked at various times during the height of its existence. I opted to bake it since I’ve done the whole frying thing on here before. The bechamel called for ¼ cup of “Mushroom Essence or purée”. I love Better than Bouillon Mushroom Base and that would have been great here but my store doesn’t carry it. Instead I opted to use “mushroom powder,” a frequent ingredient in 19th century recipes. This required the mini-chopper; a mortar and pestle would not suffice. As per the bechamel recipe, I strained out the mushroom chunks, but you can bet that they made it back in to the leftovers. I’m not a monster. In 2014 I actually took a vacation by Amtrak. It was a dismal failure. Endless delays ate into our vacation time. Decrepit stations provided a bleak waiting place for the late trains. On the last day, heading home towards Washington, DC, we finally caved in to boredom and ordered a breakfast sandwich. The ‘dining car’ employee reached down under a counter and grabbed the wrapped Jimmy Dean egg muffins and microwaved them on demand. The aspiring classes have moved on to other modes of travel, and the fancy foods went along with them.

Recipe: Chicken À La Maryland

1 chicken 4-5 lbs
1 egg, beaten
salt & pepper to taste
bread crumbs as needed
¼ cup melted butter
8 pieces uncooked bacon

If possible, brine chicken several hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 400°. Split chicken into breasts, leg & thigh, wings. Season pieces with salt and pepper. Dip in beaten eggs then in breadcrumbs and arrange in lightly greased skillet in which bacon has been laid. Brush with melted butter. Bake until internal temperature reaches 180° (about 35 minutes), drizzling frequently with pan drippings. Serve over corn fritter with béchamel sauce poured over or on the side. Béchamel

1 cup Stock (vegetable, chicken, or mushroom)
¼ cup ground dried mushroom (optional)
1 cup milk or half-and-half
2 tb Butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1/8 tsp mace
salt & white pepper, to taste

Simmer stock, reducing slightly. Stir in dried mushrooms, then add milk. Season with mace, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add flour which has been thoroughly mixed with the butter. Stir until thickened; strain (if desired). Corn Fritters

1 can sweet corn, well drained
1.5 tb butter
2 eggs, beaten
3 tb milk
3/8 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
lard or oil for frying

Combine all ingredients except frying oil, stirring until mixed. Heat oil in pan and cook like small pancakes, gently turning with a spatula halfway through. May cover pan with lid to ensure fritter is cooked through. Recipes adapted from “Dining on the B & O”

Other posts about Maryland Fried Chicken: