Chow Chow, Mrs. Anna Humes

I think a lot about the impact of digital documents on interpretation of history. Which items are and are not easily available to online inevitably steer the course of my research and my writing.

For example: at some point someone in the New York Public Library decided to scan “Tested Maryland Recipes.” The public domain book then became available on google books.

As a result, this book was one of the earliest Maryland community cookbooks that I had access to.
The 1913 cookbook was the second edition of a book first produced by the Ladies of the Presbyterian Church in Chesapeake City in 1900. It includes recipes for terrapin, white potato pie, deviled crabs, beaten biscuits, and even stuffed ham. This is actually the oldest printed recipe for “Maryland Stuffed Ham” that I know of – and its in a Cecil County cookbook.

“Tested Maryland Recipes” has surely influenced my research and my perceptions of Maryland food. It’s also one of those books that will always have a special place in my heart. I frequently reach for my little Harvard Book Store on-demand copy when I need to find a good old recipe.

That’s what I did when I needed a few recipes to showcase the summer bounty of the 32nd Street Farmer’s Market on an MPT segment with Al Spoler. I looked for a nice pickle that would use a variety of vegetables, and I landed on this recipe for Chow Chow, contributed by Mrs. Anna Humes.

Chow-Chow is a mixed pickle often associated with the South. The various theories on its origins and its name are so speculative that I don’t even want to repeat them here. Bottom line: nobody knows. Recipes tend to contain cabbage, onions, cucumbers, and peppers. Other ingredients can include a varying array of vegetables such as green tomatoes, corn, celery, and lima beans. The seasoning is equally unpredictable. Horseradish; cinnamon; turmeric; celery seed; mustard. Some recipes are sharp with salt and vinegar while others have sweet-pickle proportions of sugar.

I chose a recipe based on what was available between my pantry, my CSA, and the market.
Despite the inclusion of brown sugar, Mrs. Humes’ chow-chow was strong with vinegar and almost had the potency of jarred mustard. When I used the chow-chow in mayonaisey egg and fish salads, I sometimes mixed it with sweet pickles. For hot dogs, I cut it with fresh cabbage to mellow it out. I didn’t consider this a shelf-safe item and I kept it in the fridge, but the flavor alone suggested this was a pickle that could keep for a good while.

This is probably a very old recipe.

I believe that Anna Humes was born Anna Spilman in Baltimore around 1829. In 1846 she married Thomas Humes, Jr., the son of a liquor trader who was “one of Old Town’s richest merchants,” according to the Baltimore Sun. A street bearing the Humes name used to exist in Old Town, but is now covered with a parking lot.

After Thomas Jr. died in 1852, Anna lived in Baltimore for a few years, but she was in Chesapeake City in the 1870 census with her daughter Mary Susan. Anna’s late husband probably had had some business in Chesapeake City. His sister’s son, G.W. Hume Craig, is listed in an 1877 Cecil County atlas as a lawyer.

In 1872, Mary Susan married a man named Benjamin Williams at the Chesapeake City Presbyterian Church. The 1880 census listed Anna lived with the Williamses around Huntington and York (25th and Greenmount) in Baltimore. The family was living in Darlington, Maryland when Anna died in 1905.

As for Anna’s ancestry, her father is named in her obituary as James Spilman, Esquire. He was born in Virginia and appears on census documents living in Old Town on Ensor, a few modern city blocks away from where Humes Street was. James came from a family that was in Culpeper County Virginia for several generations, starting with Johannes Spilman coming from Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany in 1714. Anna Humes’ mother may have been Mary Ann Barrickman, who was born in Baltimore in 1794.
I also noticed some ‘Spilmans’ living nearby in the 1880 census. I suspect Henry Spilman, a lawyer, merchant, and fireman, may have been Anna’s brother.

Some of the above information is more conjecture than I usually like to rely on. It isn’t always easy to research the contributors of “Tested Maryland Recipes.” Many of the women in the book were born in the 1800s and the census data is less detailed.

Chow-Chow was Anna Humes’ sole recipe in the cookbook. As I flipped through the other recipes to make this post, I came across so many others I’d like to try. Prior to the book making its way to the New York Public Library, the previous owner drew brackets next to some of the recipes. A few have notes: “My mother.” “My own recipe.” A whole dimension is added to this book, which made the leap from recipes kept in women’s scrapbooks or their memories, compiled into a community cookbook, transformed back into personal recipe book in its owners hands, then donated to become a public library book, scanned and put online to catch the eye of google searches for ‘white potato pie,’ and then printed and added back into my own personal library, to cook from and marvel over, time and time again.

Recipe:

• 1 Quart onions
• 1 Quart green tomatoes
• 1 head cauliflower
• 6 good-sized cucumbers
• 1 small head cabbage
• 1 bunch celery
• .5 oz celery seed
• .25 Lb mustard powder
• 2 Teaspoons black pepper
• 1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
• a few pepper pods
• 3 Teaspoons turmeric
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 3 Pints vinegar
• salt

“One quart onions, 1 quart green tomatoes, 1 head cauliflower, 6 good-sized cucumbers, 1 small head cabbage, 1 bunch celery, 1/2 ounce celery seed, 1/4 pound ground mustard, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 1 of cayenne, a few pepper pods, 3 teaspoons turmeric, 1 cup brown sugar, 3 pints vinegar. Cut the vegetables into small pieces not too small, put in a kettle, cover with salt water and boil until tender, then strain off the water and add the mustard, pepper, celery, sugar and turmeric. then add the vinegar and let it come to a good boil. This makes one gallon.”

Recipe from “Tested Maryland Recipes,” Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, Chesapeake City, 1900 & 1913