recipes Archives - Page 59 of 59

Crab Flake Maryland, Charles Bitterli, Hotel Emerson

March 22, 2015January 13, 2019

I had some illustrious company and wanted to serve a classy meal. Where better to take cues from than the illustrious Hotel Emerson.

Hotel Emerson by Aubrey Bodine @ MD Historical Society

The hotel was the brainchild of Capt. Isaac Emerson, the man behind Bromo-Seltzer and its parent company, the Emerson Drug Co…the 220-foot-high, 17-story building at the corner of Baltimore and Calvert streets.. opened its doors a quick 20 months later….

And long before the current fashion for local ingredients, the Chesapeake Room offered a traditional Maryland-themed menu made from products raised on Capt. Emerson’s Green Spring Valley estate, Brooklandwood (now the home of St. Paul School for Boys). The hotel’s milk and cream came from Brooklandwood’s herd of Guernsey and Jersey cows, and the estate also produced chicken and eggs, as well as lettuces, tomatoes and other vegetables. The hotel even bottled its own water from a spring near Brooklandwood. – Mary Zajac

Please read the article for more on how the Emerson’s history is both illustrious and horrific.

In its later years, the Emerson was known for its “Hawaiian Room,” a seemingly immersive tiki bar. A lot of ephemera has been collected on this facebook page.

Drink menu from the Emerson’s Hawaiian Room.

Because our city’s self-loathing dates back further than I care to think about, the building was razed in 1971. There is a great web 1.0 site showing many of our lost hotels, as well as some still standing, at kilduffs.com.

This recipe was provided to Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland by “Chef de Cuisine” Charles Bitterli. According to a trade publication called “The Alarm Clock”:

Mr Charles Bitterli the chef of The Emerson Hotel Baltimore Maryland was born in Switzerland. The years since 1904 have been a steady advance in his chosen profession. The first five years were spent in Swiss hotels and famous eating houses one year was spent in Paris at the Regina Hotel. ln order to gain the experience necessary for the goal in view Mr Bitterli was associated with the Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam; Royal Pavilion, Folkstone, England; Hotel dos Estrangeiros Rio de Janiero and The Exhibition Restaurant in Berne.

Mr. Bitterli arrived in New York City in 1915 and began his duties at the Hotel Astor. Some of the other well known houses with which he was later affiliated were Sherman Hotel, Chicago; Adolphus Hotel, Dallas, Texas; Hammel’s Restaurant, Miller’s Cafeteria, Motor Square Hotel and Chamber of Commerce all in Pittsburgh. Chef Bitterli shouldered his new responsibilities at the Emerson Hotel in September of this year and is well liked not only for the good food that leaves his department but also for his optimism and his sense of humor.

Bitterli in “The Alarm Clock,” “published monthly in the interests of the staff of Horwath and Horwath”

Searching google and facebook turns up possible relatives of Bitterli but I was unable to successfully contact anyone for more information.

This recipe from Bitterli appears on a New York Post page alongside diet and health tips from celebrities such as Dorthea Dix.

Crab being woefully out of season, I used this pricey and possibly shady meat from Garland Fulcher Seafood of North Carolina. I picked many shell bits from it. Not a huge deal but all in all the price, unfamiliar source and quality should serve as a cautionary tale to mind the seasons.

I made the mistake of using salted butter AND using the generous recommended quantity of a half ounce of salt so of course that was a disservice to the crab meat I’d paid so dearly for.

This method of serving something in a cream sauce, often in a chafing dish, was very common of hotels and railroads at the time and it of course always turns out a tasty salty creamy indulgence, apparently to the delight of travelers. I served it over asparagus on a crepe to our guests. Much water was consumed. I used the leftovers to make a less-salty cream of crab soup later.

1 Lb lump crab flake
1 Pint milk, scalded
.5 Pint cream
.25 Lb unsalted butter
.25 oz salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 glass sherry
2 Tablespoons flour
toast

Melt half the butter in saucepan, add the flour and make the cream sauce with the heated milk, set aside to keep it hot. Heat the rest of the butter in a saucepan, add the crab meat and fry a little, trying not to break up the lumps. Add salt, pepper, cream sauce and cream. Let boil for two of three minutes, then add the sherry and mix well. Make sure that it doesn’t boil. Serve very hot in chafing dish with toast.

Recipe Adapted from “Eat, Drunk & Be Merry in Maryland”

Cheddar Chowder, Mrs. Janet Gadd Doehler

March 16, 2015January 13, 2019

First Published in 1962 by The Episcopal Church Women of St. Paul’s Parrish in Queen Anne’s County, this spiral bound cookbook is of a type I come across frequently – the church or fund-raiser “community” cookbook. Usually spiral-bound, printed by various specialty companies, and containing home-grown illustrations if you’re lucky, these volumes are a great resource of recipes of ordinary people throughout several decades of the 20th century. They are also a huge source of frustration to a completist such as myself.

This recipe was contributed to “Queen Anne Goes to the Kitchen” by a Mrs. Janet Gadd Doehler. Mrs. Doehler resided on the historical Sidney Gadd farm in Centreville Maryland, described in this Maryland Historical Trust document as “a very plain mid-19th century three bay; two and one half story frame building. It is unusual for that date in that the original kitchen was in the basement where there is a cooking fireplace.”
It seems possible that Janet is still alive – google turns up an award winning gardener in that general area and a ‘Janet and Sydney Gadd Doehler’ as supporters of Adkins Arboretum, also in that general area. I feel remiss that I did not get in touch with her – when working with newer recipes I sometimes forget that the involved parties may still be available.

Sidney Gadd Farm, Maryland Historical Trust

The first thing that most culinary historians will encounter in the older “receipt” collections or cooking texts is the lack of instructions by modern standards. “Cook it ’til it’s done,” is sometimes the extent of it. As cookbooks progress on to modernity, recipes get more and more informative. Yet even here we see examples of assuming a basic knowledge of cooking skills. “Make a white sauce with margarine, flour, and milk” is part of the instructions.

I used what I had on hand, substituting shallot for onion and cooked thick bacon for ham. Pretty liberal I guess. I also used butter instead of margarine because I don’t F around with the latter. I guess I ought to go post an angry review about how it didn’t turn out.
Actually it turned out tasty and hearty. In fact, using what you have on hand is often an accurate way to get in the spirit of older recipes. I also used stock instead of boiling water because I have to keep the constant kitchen scraps stock cycle going infinitely.∞

2 Cups boiling water or stock
2 Cups diced potato
.5 Cup sliced carrot
1 Cup celery
.5 Cup chopped onion
1.5 Teaspoons salt
.25 Teaspoons black pepper
.25 Cup butter
.25 Cup flour
2 Cups milk
2 Cups shredded Cheddar cheese
.125 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup cubed, cooked ham

Add water to vegetables, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Do not drain. Make a white sauce with butter, flour, and milk. Add cheese and soda; stir until melted. Cool the stock and vegetables to lukewarm. (Be sure vegetables are not hot. If cream sauce is added to the hot mixture, it will curdle.) Add ham and un-drained vegetables to cream sauce. Heat. Do not boil. Serves 6 to 8.
Variation: Omit ham and substitute 8 slices of crumbled bacon or 1 cup of cooked shrimp.

Recipe Adapted from “Queen Anne Goes to the Kitchen”

Shad Roe Bánh Mì..

March 16, 2015January 17, 2021

Around this weekend every year since 2012, I host a “Maryland Spring Breakfast” where some friends and I enjoy shad roe while it’s in season and (for me at least) get into the spring spirit. Winter has been lingering here but it feels like it “broke” this past week and we’re all ready to swap coats for jackets, boots for shoes, and hot coffee for iced.

Despite my obsession with Maryland food, one of my favorite cookbook authors specializes in Vietnamese food. Through her writing and videos, Andrea Nguyen has helped me along as a cook, providing skills, ideas and ingredients that carry with me when I cook Maryland food.

When she authored a book that was dedicated to banh mi this past year I pre-ordered it, eagerly awaited it and used it as inspiration for delicious sandwich creation all summer long.

As she is known to fearlessly experiment with American and Vietnamese food herself, I felt inspired to try a little fusing. After three years of cooking shad roe with bacon I feel ready to branch out, and besides that a few of my friends don’t eat meat.

Shad roe has a love-it-or-hate-it funk to it that gave me the idea to use it as a liver pâté substitute. I simmered minced shallot, five-spice powder, fish sauce and the roe in a generous amount of butter. I then broke up the roe sacs and added cognac and mixed it all up. I stored it lined with bay leaves overnight. I had hoped that the extra butter would make it a little more spreadable but it turned out a little dry and crumbly.

As I’d made other fillings and condiments from her book, the roe is seen here with edamame pâté (along with some homemade spicy sesame-lime mayo & some Maggi).

“The Banh Mi Handbook“ features a recipe for enhancing canned sardines that come in tomato sauce. I bought a can of tomato sauce and used this basic concept for the shad. Shad is a terribly bony fish but when you steam shad for five hours you can eat the bones. So I did that to make them sandwich ready. I added the can of tomato sauce during the last hour. That was the day before. Day of, I sauteed some shallots, added the pan liquid and then warmed up the shad in that liquid. The result was a good but not overpowering sandwich filler. It could have been more flavorful or perhaps some Vietnamese sausage would make a nice addition. We had some fried tofu and eggplant options as well. (I stuck with a pescetarian friendly menu.)

Along with the usual suspects: cucumber, jalapeños, do chua, sriracha, cilantro.. we had some very tasty little sandwiches.

I made a version of Maryland White Potato Pie using condensed milk, honey, seasoned with citrus & nutmeg and using some extra egg whites leftover from the mayonnaise, beaten and folded in. The result was perhaps the most moist version of this pie I have made.

That stray piece of cilantro is driving me nuts but I wasn’t focused on food styling today, I was focused on delicious food, making traditions, and the company of friends.

Sweet Potato Croquettes, Miss Eliza Thomas

March 9, 2015January 25, 2019

I enjoy discussing and learning about history, as well as cooking, but since I am not an actual expert at either I feel like these blog entries are like.. enjoyable term papers. As though someone went to college and liked it. That someone is ME.. So let me get my “scientific method” of historical food blog entries together and enjoy this educational experience. Before your very eyes…

~~~~ {artistic visual segue}~~~~

Introduction: Croquettes appear in many forms throughout my various sources. I had two sweet potatoes left over from something else and thought I’d give this recipe a try. It also gave me an opportunity to use my neglected Kitchenaid grinder.

So… Fun* facts… the Wikipedia page for croquettes is unexpectedly** substantial and full of photos of delicious** fried things.

Unwelcome personal anecdote… these sweet potato croquettes reminded me of the “sweet potato sticks” that they used to sell at the Fireman’s Carnival in Chincoteague, VA. I love sweet potatoes and I always loved this annual treat – warm creamy center in a crispy, greasy** fried exterior.

Cooking details… My one regret is following this recipe too closely and adding the full called-for amount of salt. Too salty. Cooks at home: salt to taste! Always! But I keep making this mistake.

Historical background, the “meat” of ‘Old Line Plate’.. as for Miss Eliza Thomas, I could only find some facts indicating she is an heiress, inheriting lands from her husband’s grandmother, and maybe other family members? Research is complicated by the fact that several of her relatives share her name. She lived in Baltimore but inherited lands on the Patuxent, known as “Trent Hall,” here lamented to be in a state of neglect along with its super cool tombs.

“Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware” by John Martin Hammond asserts that she also inherited another estate on the Patuxent known as Cremona: “Among the charming homes in Saint Mary’s County Maryland of which an extended story has not been told… another Key house Cremona which has been inherited by Miss Eliza Thomas of Baltimore”

“Cremona Farm: Jewel of the Patuxent River” by Jamie Haydel

Outside of the above article I only found this photo of the interior, from the Baltimore Sun.

Recipe:

2 cups cooked peeled sweet potato
1 Tablespoon butter
Salt to taste
1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon of white pepper
1 egg
breadcrumbs
fat

Run sweet potato through a vegetable mill or grinder. Add butter, salt, sugar and white pepper; mix thoroughly. Form into cylinders, dip in egg, then in bread crumbs and fry in smoking hot fat.

Recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland

*the actual definition of fun is subjective

**TO ME

Celery Soup, Mrs. J. Alexis Shriver

March 1, 2015January 13, 2019

This is a recipe for a cold and rainy day when you have nothing better to do but force the most notoriously fibrous of vegetables through a sieve. You will then mix it with cream and salty stock and annihilate that whole negative calorie thing that celery is famous for.

There was a time before celery was the vegetable of misery, and it made its way into pot pies, chicken salads, and in this case into stock which, in a fiber-free double-whammy, goes back into this soup containing more celery. Well this was sort of a pain in the @%$ to make. Tasty but I’m not sure if it was worth the effort. If I had a more sturdy strainer maybe I’d reconsider. I also would have made this with more celery. Mrs. Shriver is very vague about the amount of celery to use despite being very particular about other things. For instance, a double-boiler was called for. I ignored this – double-boilers were often necessary for hearth cooking but hardly so on my gas range.Sadly I did not find much information on Mrs. Shriver. Instead, I read all about her husband, as is often the case with the misseses of “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.”

James Alexis Shriver was a passionate historian. We apparently have him to thank for a lot of the first Maryland historical markets, including many of the “George Washington ___ here” variety.

J. Alexis Shriver installing the ‘John Brown’ marker in 1938

“James Alexis Shriver was born in 1872. A Baltimore resident during his early years, Shriver moved to near Joppa in Harford County after graduating from Cornell in the early 1890’s. Born of a wealthy and well-known Maryland family… Just after the turn of the century, Shriver became very active in the Harford County Historical Society…. He caused a number of cast iron road markers to be raised along the highways and byways of the state. Most were concerning with Washington’s well-documented journeys, and all were unveiled with as much ceremony as could be gotten from the situation.” – MDHS

Recipe:

celery
1 pint chicken or veal stock
I Tb butter
2 Tb flour
black pepper
salt
1 Cup cream

Boil celery until soft, then press through a sieve. Discard the fiber. In a pot over medium heat, add the celery to the stock. Rub a tablespoonful of butter into two tablespoonfuls of flour, and add to soup to thicken. Season with pepper and salt, and strain again so the soup will be perfectly smooth. Return to low heat and add cream.