Category: recipes

“Green Corn” in Imitation of Fried Oysters

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As a wise person once said:

“Green corn, we believe, is essentially a Maryland herb, for here only is it found in full perfection. Go south but a hundred leagues, and the best hotels will serve you corn that leaves a lingering feeling of imitation and inauthenticity. It is, as it were, a bit lousy. Go north, the same distance and you will find the green corn flabby and watery. Go west and it will disgust you utterly. In Maryland alone does it reach the flawless heights.” – Baltimore Sun, 1909 (via The Spokesman-Review)*

Green corn in this case probably means young corn. I wasn’t completely able to work that one out. However, there are many references to and recipes for “green corn” in old newspapers and cookbooks.
Most of them are positive but there is also this: During the “Maryland Campaign,” Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North, many of his soldiers, after eating “green corn,” allegedly became ill with diarrhea en route to the bloody Battle of Antietam.
So like, green corn won the Civil War?

I came across this fritter recipe in a few places – first was “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” as “Green Corn in Imitation of Fried Oysters” c/o Miss Rebecca Hollingsworth French of Washington County. They appear in “Maryland’s Way” as “Artificial Oysters” from “Aunt Ery.” I also came across them in a strange Baltimore Sun page in 1837:

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Baltimore Sun Archives, September 23, 1837

I don’t know if the nubile young corn we got from One Straw Farm could qualify as this mystical “green corn” but I went for it anyway.
So the question now is.. did the result taste like oysters? Frankly, I didn’t get that. But they did make nice little sandwiches and snacks. You could really go any way with these.. part of a vegetarian meal, or in my case, make a sandwich, adding a little anchovy sauce to the bread for some umami of the sea. Still cheaper than real oysters, after all.
I guess the other question is.. did we feel any, uh…. less ready to face our foes in the battlefield? Thankfully, no. We survived with innards un-afflicted.

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Recipe:

  • 2 cups of young corn, cooked, grated from cob & mashed
  • 3 tb flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Pinch each of black & cayenne pepper
  • Butter or oil for frying

Mix together first 5 ingredients. Fry in shallow oil or butter until golden brown on each side.

Recipe adapted from “Maryland’s Way” & “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland”

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*This article is recommended reading! Transcribed here for posterity.

Maryland Wineberry Shrub

There comes a time in the life of every seasonal fruit, when having been consumed to excess and then lent to some other assortment of creative uses, finally what is left of the fruit must be preserved. In modern times we have some options here. We have freezers and dehydrators, in addition to those methods of antiquity; preserving with sugar or pickling.
Another preservation method from antiquity is currently having its day (again) and that is the shrub.

“Shrub” can refer to a vinegar-based syrup made with fruit or herbs, or it can refer to a drink made from this syrup. In this case it will be fruit, substituting wineberries and blackberries for raspberries in Maryland Raspberry Shrub.

Continue reading “Maryland Wineberry Shrub”

Wineberry Fool

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On a recent hike I noticed that the bushes around me were teeming with the fuzzy red buds of soon-to-be wineberries. I came back and gathered as much as I had the patience for in humid Maryland July weather.

I love to blather on about my childhood days spent gathering, preserving and baking blackberries but those days are indeed gone. The invasive wineberry is now berry queen of mainland Maryland field and forest.

The upside of that is that wineberries are delicious, and that I don’t feel much guilt about tackling their thorny branches, plundering the generous sweet raspberry-like fruits to my hearts content.

The recipe for Raspberry Fool is printed in the “Maryland’s Way” cookbook from a book belonging to Hammond-Harwood house resident Mrs. F.T. Loockerman. The famous Annapolis house was bought for Frances Townley (married name Loockerman) by her father, Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase.

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F.T. Loockerman miniature, Robert Field 1803.

The English origin of this dessert is perhaps obvious from its name. If it’s a ‘fool’, a ‘trifle’, or a ‘mess’ then you can safely assume Old World origin.

Many old dessert and beverage recipes tend to call for raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and sometimes blueberries interchangeably.

Although the recipe instructs it to be served with ‘wafers’, my use of vanilla wafers was probably less appropriate for the period.

Modern vanilla wafers would more likely be known as some kind of “little cake,” and “wafers” or biscuits could mean something such as the popular Naples Biscuit, or a dainty wafer made in a press, much like a waffle cone.

This made a refreshing summer snack, wafer scandal notwithstanding. I’ll bet “wafer scandal” is probably some type of British dessert…

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Recipe:

  • 2 Cups wineberries or other berry
  • .5 Cup sugar
  • .5 Pint whipping cream

Clean and dry berries, add sugar and let stand to extract juice. Mash berries slightly, put in a pot and bring slowly to a boil. Cook until soft, strain through a sieve and chill. When the juice is cold, whip the cream and add the fruit to it. Refrigerate or freeze for at least two hours before serving. 

“Any other fruit may be used for a Fool. Serve with wafers or sweet biscuits.”

Adapted from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook”

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twarożek ze szczypiorkiem i rzodkiewką

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I’m making a quick post before the holiday weekend to share this recipe which we make frequently in the summer with our CSA radishes. So that makes it a Maryland recipe.

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Burgersub has been making this for years but was uncertain of its origin although he knew it was possibly based on something his Polish mother makes. I google’d it and found “twarożek z szczypiorkem i rzodkiewką”, a Polish radish salad. Some websites call for cottage cheese or a combination with sour cream.

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However, the one ingredient that Burgersub insists upon is this Polish style farmers cheese. Well, the radishes are essential but we have used chives instead of green onions on occasion. We get the cheese at Krakus here in Baltimore. I always pick up some chocolate or krówki (caramels) when I go in there.

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We like to serve this quick spread on bagels for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

In some roundabout way I’m getting at some melting pot idea, thinking about how these recipes on this site found their way rough and tumble, through confusion, appropriation, renaming and improving, to become what we have. After all, if we didn’t have Google it would just be “radish salad.. a Polish type thing.”

Thomas Jefferson, flawed character though he was, had a much different vision of Independence Day than we know today (John Adams was more on the mark.)

Jefferson had a sort of charmingly naive understanding of (free) humanity and so he thought we would spend the day in quiet reflection or something. “..Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

I do agree that we should spend some time thinking about what this country means to us, atrocities and all, and reflect upon what we can do in this day and age to build something better and perhaps maintain what is already good.

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“Recipe”

  • about a pint of radishes
  • one or two green onions (or use chives)
  • 16 oz farmers cheese (twarog wiejski) [note: don’t get ‘Chudy’ style that means ‘skinny’]
  • salt to taste
  • optional: a little sour cream to thin

Slice or dice radishes, mince green onion, mix into farmer’s cheese with a pinch or two of salt. Tastes better the second day but the radishes will get chewy on the third day! Serve on bagels, toast, crackers, etc.

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Maryland Fried Chicken II: That Steaming Thing

“The disservice done the public by commercially fried chicken is perpetuating the fallacy that Southern fried, by definition, is crisp, crunchy, and deep fried. There is more to it than that, for there are other ways to fry a chicken.

So how does a Southerner fry chicken at home? He coats the disjointed chicken with seasoned flour and browns it in hot shortening or oil on both sides. Now for the decision: to crisp or not to crisp? With lid on and heat lowered, the chicken becomes meltingly tender, not the least bit crisp, and as Southern as any other. This can be carried a step further when the chicken is done, excess fat may be poured off, and a little water added. Lid on again for five minutes of steam, and there’s Southern fried fit for the gods.” – Southern Heritage Cookbook Library, “Plain & Fancy Poultry”

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This week we will revisit Maryland Fried Chicken, briefly, to try out the dreaded “steaming” step.

First I will say that contrary to the above Southern Heritage quote, the steam step is far from conclusive.

I started to make a spreadsheet to track this. Here’s what I have so far:

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I also cross-referenced my two favorite Virginia cooks, Mary Randolph (1824) and Edna Lewis (1976) and found them both serving their fried chicken with cream gravy.

According to The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani “The idea of making a sauce to go with fried chicken must have occurred early on, at least in Maryland, where such a match came to be known as “Maryland fried chicken.” By 1878 a dish by this name was listed on the menu of the Grand Union hotel in Saratoga, New York…“ (source) No mention of steaming. 

This Serious Eats post explores the same subject, delving into whether to add that water to the pan, and coming to the conclusion “I don’t think [adding water is] a great idea, and I also don’t think it’s necessary: covering the pan for a portion of the frying traps more than enough of the steam generated by the chicken without pouring in additional water. I have a few theories about what this covering/steaming step accomplishes, the main one being that it helps the chicken cook more evenly despite its not being fully submerged in oil. “

Their final conclusion is: “Covering and steaming may seem antithetical to the goals of frying, but it’s pretty amazing how crispy the chicken ends up after the final minutes of cooking while uncovered.”

So its obvious that many Maryland cooks counted this step as a necessary part of their chicken cooking. I tried it and I found it tasty.. I mean it is fried chicken. It wasn’t as crispy but there was still a crispiness to the skin, and the meat was great. I think that tender fried chicken can be achieved without the water by attentive cooks and proper brining.

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Recipe:

  • 1 Cup flour
  • 1 Teaspoon salt
  • .25 Teaspoon paprika
  • 2.5 Lb cut up chicken, broiler-fryer
  • oil, vegetable
  • .25 Cup water
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 1 Cup milk

Combine first three ingredients in a plastic or paper bag; shake to mix. Place two or three pieces of chicken in the bag; shake well. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken. Reserve two tablespoons of flour mixture for the gravy.

Heat ½ inch of oil in a large skillet to 325; add chicken. Cover, and cook 7 minutes. Turn chicken; cover, and cook an additiona 7 minutes. Reduce heat; drain off oil, reserving two tablespoons of oil and the chicken in skillet. Add water to skillet; cover and continue cooking over low heat 20 minutes or until tender. Drain chicken on paper towels; transfer to a warmed serving platter.

Add butter to pan drippings, and melt. Scrape sides of skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen browned crumbs. Gradually add reserved flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Serve gravy with chicken.

Adapted from “The Southern Heritage Plain and Fancy Poultry Cookbook,” 1983

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I suppose my next step would be to try the side-by-side comparison. I may have exhausted all possible chicken talk so please follow the Old Line Place Facebook page or twitter if you want to be updated on how that goes – or try it yourself and tell me about it!

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