Many home cooks dream of achieving what Emily Frances Kitching did. Kitching’s Smith Island boardinghouse was no restaurant. Guests ate at a set time. Meals were served at communal dinner tables. There wasn’t a menu to choose from – there was a smorgasbord of seafood soups or chowders; crab cakes; clam fritters; ham; hot rolls;…
“I suppose they gave it that name because it isn’t real, good, genuine ice-cream—just sort of a sham. You know, a ‘hocus-pocus’ is another word for a ‘hoax,’ or trick. So hokey-pokey ice-cream is a cheat. It’s cold and tastes sweet, but it isn’t good, clean wholesome food.” – Modern Physiology Hygiene and Health primer,…
Eliza Leslie’s “Strawberry Ice” isn’t exactly a Maryland recipe. I made this dessert to partake in the Dundurn Recipe Challenge. Since I didn’t get to a dedicated blog recipe, here it is. Dundurn Castle is a historic site operating as a civic museum in Hamilton Ontario. The mansion was built in 1835, on the site…
I mostly choose recipes at random, so it’s interesting when I can find so much information on the lives and contributions of people associated with them. Many of the authors of the very old cookbooks I work from had some of the worst politics imaginable. Nancy Polikoff, on the other hand, spent her entire career…
“A lady whose husband had a severe cold recomended flaxseed lemonade. ‘Huh!’ he said, irascibly, ‘a man can’t have a cold without everybody suggesting some fool remedy. I’ll send for a doctor.’So the doctor came, charged the sick man $2 for his visit and advised flaxseed lemonade.” – New York Sun, 1887 The earliest recorded…