Apricot-Wineberry Marmalade, E. H. Matthews
“Maryland Cooking,” a 1948 book produced by the Maryland Home Economics Association, is certainly a classic documentation of our region. I’ve reached for this book again and again for inspiring recipes, and have uncovered some of the lives of the teachers and home economists behind each handwritten recipe I’ve made.
The book has some interesting quirks.
Some of the recipes are a little repetitive. The book’s three-hundred and ten recipes may make it sound epic, but that’s a fairly small quantity for a community cookbook. Nearly every recipe has its own page, and some recipes span more than one page. Yet there are a lot of near-duplications – for Seafood Newburg, Cooked Salad Dressing, Fruit Cake, and many more.
The choice to print the recipes as handwritten was a lovely one, but some of the handwriting is hard to decipher.
Most notable is the fact that, for a book put out by home economics teachers at the turn of the 1950s, some of the recipes are surprisingly vague. These people were codifying, standardizing, educating, and fine-tuning the art of cooking and recipes. This process had been in the works for half a century at the time of publication. And yet “E. H. Matthews,” in their Apricot-Raspberry Marmalade recipe, simply instructed me to cook the fruit “slowly until thick.”
“Test by putting a little on a cold plate,” Matthews wrote. “When it stiffens as soon as cool, it is done.”
Matthews didn’t account for the fact that I’d be using extremely ripe foraged wineberries and juicy, ripe, and fragrant apricots from the farmers’ market. This marmalade was not going to thicken. And that’s okay.
I didn’t choose the recipe for clear instructions. I chose it because I picked a ton of wineberries and had to do something quick. Despite visual similarities to raspberries, I think that wineberries don’t have quite as complex a flavor. Mixing them with another fruit is the way to go.
I suspect the recipe’s author to be Edna H. Matthews, born Edna Hartman in 1882 in Maryland. I believe Edna and her sister Sadie Alberta – who also has recipes in Maryland Cooking – were orphaned and raised by their aunt and uncle, Jennie and Albert Rosenberg.
I am not sure when Edna married, but she was widowed by 1930.
Edna and Alberta retired together to Clearwater Florida, and Edna died in 1964. The sisters are buried with family in Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.
This marmalade is E.H. Matthews’ sole recipe in “Maryland Cooking.” I feel a little guilty for going off-script with it. But the result has been a treat with yogurt. It’s like summer in a jar.
Recipe:
- 2 Lb apricot
- 2 Cups raspberries (I used wineberries)
- 2.5 Lb sugar
- .25 Cup water
Wash, peel and pit apricots. Wash raspberries. Add sugar & water to apricots & raspberries. Cook slowly until thick. Test by putting a little on a cold plate; when it stiffens as soon as cool, it is done. Pour into sterilized glasses and seal with parrafin.
Recipe from Maryland Cooking. Maryland Home Economics Association. 1948.
