In 1894, Mrs. Charles H. Gibson, like Miss. Mary Lloyd Tyson and Mrs. Benjamin Chew Howard before her, got in on the trend of releasing a cookbook to share and boast her renowned hostessing and housekeeping skills. Like those other books “Mrs. Charles H. Gibson’s Maryland and Virginia Cookbook” capitalized on the fame of Chesapeake…
Cooking from “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County” always provides an opportunity for excursions into some neglected aspects of Maryland cuisine (both regionally and racially). This week I made a simple recipe for a scalloped potato dish, a comforting winter side. The recipe author: Julia Courtney? I’ve tried my best. As I’ve…
The options were overwhelming when faced with choosing a ‘Browns’ recipe to go with the Craig Saper interview. For decades the Browns traveled and collected recipes from Europe, South America, each of the 48 states and beyond. The books are a bit more fun to read than to actually cook from – as many of the…
Somewhere along one of my rambling internet research expeditions, Google Books’ agonizing snippet view gave me a glimpse of an interesting cookbook. The title alone hints at its vintage: “America Cooks: Favorite Recipes from 48 States.” When I got my hands on a copy my first impression was that, at 986 pages, this was a…
This recipe comes from “The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro,” a fascinating cookbook compiled in 1958 by the National Council of Negro Women. The book is organized as a calendar of sorts, with recipes assigned to specific dates. Several recipes in this cookbook have particular Maryland connections, including a pie dedicated to Benjamin Banneker…