October 2016 - OLD LINE PLATE

Sweet Potato Pone, Mrs. Y. Kirkpatrick-Howat

October 26, 2016January 13, 2019

As of this post, the Old Line Plate database has 14 different “pone” recipes in it. These fall into three basic categories: straight-up corn pone, old-fashioned pone containing molasses (usually also containing cornmeal or just ‘meal’), and sweet potato pone.

According to the “Post & Courier” of Charleston, SC, sweet potato pone evokes a special sentimentality in the South.

“Pone nostalgia isn’t a modern phenomenon. The dish is so associated with the region that Rebel Yell bourbon in the 1960s burnished its Southern credentials by offering buyers a free recipe booklet featuring sweet potato pone. It also was the object of sentimentalism in sweet potato-flush Charleston as far back as 1918.” – Hanna Raskin, Post & Courier, 2015

A 1911 recipe in a Frederick newspaper refers to Sweet Potato Pone as “a Virginia dish” which will be an “acceptable change,” but recipes for Sweet Potato Pone appeared in Maryland as early as 1873 with “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.”

Mrs. B.C. Howard’s Sweet Potato Pone, “50 Years in a Maryland Kitchen”

The recipe that I used comes from “Maryland’s Way” via Mrs. Y. Kirkpatrick-Howat. Maiden name Lauraine Speich, Mrs. Kirkpatrick-Howat was married to Yvone Kirkpatrick-Howat.

“Mr. Kirkpatrick-Howat – whose first name is Scottish for Ivan – was born in Baltimore and raised downtown on St. Paul Street and in Mexico, where his father supervised construction of a portion of the Pan-American Highway…

In 1947, Mr. Kirkpatrick-Howat moved to Contee Farms, which his mother had purchased in 1917. Part of the farm had been owned by John Contee, a naval hero of the War of 1812.” – Baltimore Sun Obituary, 2003

Remains of the Contee house after fire, photographed in 1971 by the Maryland Historical Trust

Mrs. Kirkpatrick-Howat passed away in 2009. She had been a 2nd Lieutenant nurse in World War II and “traveled throughout the world with a particular interest in the cultures of Central America.”

The Kirkpatrick-Howats are remembered most for their involvement in the restoration of London Town and Gardens, a reconstructed colonial seaport with a museum and archaeology lab.

This passable Sweet Potato Pone recipe took little effort when the peeled sweet potato was grated in the food processor. It did not require boiling, and cooked up plenty tender. I have an excess of cinnamon sugar left over from doughnuts, so things like this are a good way to unload some of it.

This will not be my last sweet potato pone. Aside from the fact that sweet potato is one of my favorite foods, the dish has had a special significance in African American Maryland cooking. In the next few weeks I’ll explore at least one of the two recipes from “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County” or one of the recipes printed in the Baltimore Afro-American over the years.

Who knows, maybe I’ll just bake my way through all 14 pone recipes. Can anyone think of a good pone pun to rename the blog?

Recipe:

.25 Cup butter, softened (please do a better job of this than I did)
.5 Cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 Cup grated sweet potato
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon
.5 Teaspoon ginger
.5 Teaspoon mace
1 dash cinnamon
.5 Cup milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and sweet potato. Beat well. Add citrus zest, spices, and milk, beating all together. Pour into a buttered odish and bake at 350° for 1 hour. “Good with roast duck or roast pork.”

Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way”

Apple Butter

October 18, 2016January 13, 2019

“Being at the house of a good old German friend in Pennsylvania, in September last, we noticed upon the table what was called apple butter; and finding it an agreeable article, we inquired into the modus operandi in making it, which we give for the gratification of such in New England as may wish to enjoy the luxury of Pennsylvania apple butter.” – Poughkeepsie Journal, NY 1838

Again, we turn to Elizabeth Ellicott Lea for guidance on preserving the harvest. Apple butter, Wikipedia will tell you, originated in Germany and the Netherlands, and has been a popular way to preserve the apple harvest in the U.S. since Colonial times. The spread is considered a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty. Lea’s cooking has a lot of overlap with the Pennsylvania Dutch, so unsurprisingly she has two recipes -or “ways”- in “Domestic Cookery.”

One of her recipes, “[Apple Butter] Another Way” prescribes the use of a huge kettle, where cider is reduced and apples are boiled in it for hours, while constantly stirred with “a stick made of hickory wood, somewhat like a common hoe, with holes in it.”

Jackson’s Orchard, flickr

This considerable undertaking became a family or even a neighborhood communal effort. The scene at the modern-day Berkeley Springs Apple Butter Festival in WV is not all that different. Every year, people gather in the town square and labor over the hot cauldrons as the smell wafts around the bustling town.

Apple butter seems particularly primed to evoke feelings pure and nostalgic for people in this region.

Advertisement, 1923

This is, of course, the part where I mention that it hasn’t always been that great. I found at least two instances where a young child died from falling into the boiling vat.

Additionally, many who ate apple butter were killed as a result of primitive canning technology.

Before the widespread use of glass jars for canning, it was common to “put up” various preserves in earthen vessels. These vessels often contained a poisonous glaze that was corroded by acidic foods like apple butter, with deadly results. Elizabeth Lea cautions about this in her other apple butter recipe, entitled “Apple Butter. With Remarks on the Use of Earthen Vessels.” This recipe is a little more user-friendly, with no need for a vat or a hickory stick. She even mentions that if you cannot finish the apple butter in a day, you can put it in a tub to continue the next day. I opted to put mine in the slow cooker when I needed to step away.

The farmers market is awash with apples right now. It’s overwhelming. I was going to ask one of the friendly vendors for advice on a good apple-butter apple but I saw that Lewis Orchards was selling a mixed crate of ugly apples (and the odd pear) and figured that was the way to go. Not all apples broke down at the same rate but I eventually got them all into submission.

Some recipes use cider. Others, like the recipe in “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County,” use vinegar. I opted to use a blend of hard and fresh cider.

The lovely aroma did indeed fill me with nostalgia for Berkeley Springs, campfires, and ‘jacket weather.’ It also filled me with anticipation for grilled cheese, barbecue sauce, and scrapple sandwiches.

Recipe:

“Have your kettle well cleaned, and fill it early in the morning with cider made of sound apples, and just from the press; let it boil half away, which may be done by three o’clock in the afternoon; have pared and cut enough good apples to fill the kettle; put them in a clean tub, and pour the boiling cider over; then scour the kettle and put in the apples and cider, let them boil briskly till the apples sink to the bottom; slacken the fire and let them stew, like preserves, till ten o’clock at night. Some dried quinces stewed in cider and put in are an improvement. Season with orange peel, cinnamon or cloves, just before it is done; if you like it sweeter, you can put in some sugar an hour before it is done. If any thing occur that you cannot finish it in a day, pour it in a tub, and finish it the next day; when it is done put it in stone jars. Any thing acid should not be put in earthen vessels, as the glazing is poisonous. This way of making apple butter requires but little stirring; you must keep a constant watch that it does not burn.

Pears and peaches may be done in the same way, and if they are sweet,
will not require sugar.”

Recipe from “Domestic cookery, useful receipts, and hints to young housekeepers” by Elizabeth Ellicott Lea

Noyau Cordial

October 12, 2016January 13, 2019

“Many a southern gentlewoman, delicately reared, but with whom fortune has dealt harshly, has been compelled to appeal to [the Daughters of the Confederacy], and often for the necessities of life. Inability to provide for all of these needs has compelled the societies to adopt some plan of replenishing their treasuries. A bazaar held in 1885 having been very successful, it was decided to repeat the effort.” – Confederate Veteran: Published Monthly in the Interest of Confederate Veterans and Kindred Topics, Volume 6

“If there had been any attempt made, or any desire evinced, to secure the participation of the Union people of the city or State in this Fair, it would have been promptly responded to by them… On the contrary, there has been a persistent effort to make [the fair] a grand disloyal demonstration.” – Baltimore American

A few months ago I capped off a birthday dinner at B&O Brasserie, with a “Pink Squirrel”. Although I’d never heard of it (big surprise – I’m a rube) the cocktail is infamously associated with Creme de Noyaux, a liqueur once made from apricot and cherry pits and colored red with cochineal. Nowadays, like so many flavored brandies, Noyaux has been reduced to a pale memory propped up by an artificially flavored and colored approximation. I was fortunate enough to enjoy the resurrected version recreated by Tempus Fugit Spirits, and I found it pretty intriguing.

1887, Baltimore Sun

Sadly, this painstaking reproduction Noyaux is hard to come by on the retail market and this would be my last taste of it for awhile. When I encountered a recipe for “Noyau” in the cookbook “Recipes Old and New, Collected by Mrs. Charles Marshall for the benefit of the Confederate relief bazaar,” I figured ‘why not?’

Well, there is one reason why not – peach kernels are said to be poisonous. But hey- I’ve consumed some kind of questionable stuff in the name of history so why not add cyanide to the list?

Originally known as the “Southern Relief Fair”, and presided over by none other than Mrs. B.C. Howard, the Confederate Relief Bazaars aimed to raise money to assist with the economic fallout following the Civil War.

According to “Grieving and reconciliation in Baltimore after the American Civil War” by Jennifer Prior, the Relief Bazaars centered around a huge sale of donated items such as oil paintings – and more than a few war relics including Confederate uniforms and other items owned by Confederate heroes. In addition to raising money, Prior argued, the Bazaars “created an environment that promoted the memory of the war.”

To aid in the money-raising efforts, “Recipes Old and New” was compiled by Mrs. Charles Marshall (née Sarah Rebecca Snowden), wife of Robert E. Lee’s military secretary. Charles Marshall had drafted Lee’s terms of acceptance of surrender at Appomattox.

Col. Charles Marshall, findagrave.com

In addition to the usual charity cookbook assortment of contributed
recipes and recipes sourced from other cookbooks, the book has a section
entitled “Confederate Recipes by Way of Contrast.” Tea made from
raspberry leaves, coffee made from roasted sweet potatoes, and ink made
from tree sap serve as a reminder of wartime scarcity and Union
blockade.

The recipe for Noyau is credited to “Josiah Lee,” a Baltimore banker and a financier of the B&O railroad. Josiah apparently appreciated fine spirits. Upon his death, his cellar of Madeira was auctioned off and “many Washington cellars were replenished” by this bounty. It is said that some of his wines were over 125 years old at the time. “Recipes Old and New,”also features his formula for Mint Julep, Apple Toddy, and Brandy Peaches.

It is likely that these recipes made it to Mrs. Marshall through Josiah Lee’s daughter Mary Catherine Lee, who was married to a relative of Mrs. Marshall’s on the Snowden side of her family. Maryland history buffs will recognize the Snowden name from several Maryland estates and landmarks, and another hero to the Confederates, Richard Snowden Andrews.

Josiah Lee & Co. Certificate of Deposit

To make a small amount of Noyau, I cracked open the kernels from the Brandied Peaches. They have a wonderful fragrance. I don’t have access to isinglass – a fish-derived gelatin, but I found instructions online for clarifying beer with regular gelatin. Sadly, it didn’t seem to accomplish anything. Nor could I get my hands on any cochineal on short notice. The resulting drink is lacking in visual appeal.

For the cocktail I mixed in a little of the liquid from the brandied peaches. I did not die from the cyanide. The jury is still out on whether I’ll survive drinking cream-based beverages.

Steep a pint of blanched peach kernels ten days in a gallon of old apple brandy. Pour the brandy from the kernels, and add four pounds pulverized loaf sugar; clarify it by dissolving, (twelve cents worth of isinglass) gelatine in a little warm water, and stir it into the cordial. Let it stand all night to settle, then steam until perfectly clear and bottle. Age improves it greatly.

Recipe from “Recipes Old and New, Collected by Mrs. Charles Marshall for the benefit of the Confederate relief bazaar”

Month: October 2016

Sweet Potato Pone, Mrs. Y. Kirkpatrick-Howat

Apple Butter

Noyau Cordial

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