I recently found this 1954 cookbook at the Pratt Library, “Secrets of Southern Maryland Cooking,” with the somewhat creepy subtitle “(How to Keep Daddy Home).” It’s 132 pages are filled with interesting illustrations and handwritten recipes – including stuffed ham, a gravy-less Maryland Fried Chicken, and some more unusual items such as advocaat. The handwriting…
The books that got me curious about Maryland food were not Maryland cookbooks, strictly speaking. This cookbook set had been a constant in my household growing up, and I never thought of them as regional at all, despite the “Southern” in the name. On my mother’s kitchen bookshelf they served as a source of inspiration and…
In 1971, a woman in Fruitland, MD, recovering from an illness, took out an ad in the Salisbury Daily Times to express gratitude towards the “many friends who contributed in any way” towards her recovery. She thanked friends, neighbors, ambulance drivers, doctors, her Pastor, and she praised the Lord. She also thanked “Bill Phillips and…
This recipe comes from a popular cookbook produced by the Maryland Seafood Marketing Authority. First produced in 1974, the book was developed with the aid of “state seafood home economist” Beverly Butler in order to “expand the role of the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry as a major contributor to the state’s economy.” At the time,…
This is another entry laden with tedious detective work, my unrestrained fanaticism ruining any possibility of ever attracting repeat readers. I’ll try to keep it brief. According to “The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle“, 1987, “famed Baltimore hostess, Mrs. B.C. Howard, compiled the earliest charity cookbook published in Maryland, Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen’(Baltimore,…