Chicken Pancakes, Mrs. Frank Jack Fletcher (Araby)

A lot of the names alongside the recipes in “Maryland’s Way” are associated with the Navy. This makes sense since the Hammond-Harwood house is in Annapolis, but it is interesting to see the different families that came to this region because of the Naval Academy and ultimately became lifelong Marylanders.

Frank Jack Fletcher was an Admiral during World War II, a commanding officer during World War I, and a lieutenant at the battle of Vera Cruz – part of the U.S. involvement in the Mexican Revolution.

That’s a lot of wars. According to Naval History magazine, he got a bum rap. I don’t know what his rap is, bum or otherwise, and I doubt he was too involved with this chicken recipe, what with all of his travels, so I’ll leave it at that.

Araby, willsfamily.com

Mrs. Frank Jack Fletcher was Martha Richards from Missouri; her family owned a hardware store in Kansas City. It’s unclear how the two met, but they were married in a rush in 1917 due to the United States entering the First World War.

In the 1930’s, the Fletchers purchased the historic Araby estate in Charles County. The house at Araby was originally built in the mid-1700s, and updated in the mid-1800s. The family of Colonel William Eilbeck owned the estate, and it is said that their only daughter Sarah once resided there with her husband George Mason. George Washington’s diaries mention frequent visits to Araby.

“Pancakes” illustration, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Historic pancake recipes tend to refer to something more like crepes than the pancakes we currently know. Illustrations in the Mrs. Beeton books show the thin pancakes rolled and stacked; they could be filled with sweet or savory fillings.

The basic recipe for these chicken filled pancakes makes frequent appearances in the Aunt Priscilla column in the Baltimore Sun. With slight variations, it was printed in 1926, 1936 and 1943. The recipe that Mrs. Fletcher contributed to “Maryland’s Way” does not specify whether the chicken should be cooked, but cooked chicken is used in the Priscilla columns, sometimes suggested as a way to use up leftovers. I cooked the chicken first just to be safe.

Frank Jack Fletcher, The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia

While it is highly possible that Mrs. Fletcher encountered the recipe through the newspaper or somewhere else, it may be worth noting that in the 1940 census, she had a black servant named Theodore Hawkins. Frank Jack Fletcher was away on duty at that time, so Hawkins may have been hired to assist with things that the Admiral wasn’t available for. However, ten years earlier, Hawkins had been employed at a hotel or kitchen at a Naval site in Indian Head Maryland, under a cook named Daisy Taylor. As the appearances in Aunt Priscilla indicate, the creamy chicken pancakes were the kind of food expected under hotel chefs and caterers of Maryland. The recipe may have reached Mrs. Fletcher through her servant whom the family may have met at Indian Head (now Naval Surface Warfare Center). We can never know these things for sure but recipe genealogy is intriguing.

Frank Jack Fletcher survived all of the wars he served in, and died in 1973, with Mrs. Fletcher passing away just over a year later. Both are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Recipe:

.5 Lb mushroom
3 Tablespoon butter
2 tb grated onion or shallot
2 white onions
1 Cup finely ground chicken
1 Cup cream
salt
pepper, black
cream sauce
cheese, Parmesan

Chop mushrooms fine and sauté in 1 tablespoon butter with grated onion. Brown sliced white onions in 2 tablespoons butter, then remove onions with slotted spoon and save for another dish. Sprinkle chicken with flour and stir it into onion seasoned butter. Add mushrooms and cook gently for about two minutes. Add cream, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for a minute or two longer. Spread the chicken on crepes (recipe below) and roll up. Arrange them in an oven dish, cover with cream sauce, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350° for 5-10 minutes, until just browned.

Crepes:

1 Cup flour
1 whole egg plus 2 yolks
pinch salt
2 Cups milk
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Sift together flour and salt. Break egg into center; add 2 yolks. Pour in a little milk and milk with a fork until smooth. Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk; beat in butter. Cover batter and let rest for 2 hours. Batter should be the consistency of whipping cream. If it is too thick, whisk in more milk. Batter should be the consistency of whipping cream. If it is too thick, whisk in more milk.
To cook, melt additional butter in a pourable container. Heat a skillet and pour in a little butter. Turn skillet so that butter covers bottom and sides. When hot, ladle just enough batter to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned on each side.butter covers bottom and sides. When hot, ladle just enough batter to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned on each side.

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