Hoffman Cook Book (smear case) Cheas Cakes
The Manuscript Cookbooks Survey describes the handwriting in the “Hoffman Cook Book” as having an “unvarying mood.” That is one way to put it. The text is dense. Impenetrable. To my eyes: a nightmare.
The exhausting handwriting likely belonged to Lydia A. Hoffman Smyser, who was born in Maryland in 1837 and ended up in York County Pennsylvania. The book’s cover bears the title “Grandma’s Cook Book 1771.”
1771 was the year German immigrant William Hoffman married Susannah Weinbach and rented a paper mill near Philadelphia. Despite the book’s date, and the claim inside the book that it belonged to Susannah, some recipes contain ingredients that weren’t available until the mid-1800s. Still, the book contains a lot of intriguing German-influenced recipes with a Pennsylvania Dutch bent. Fried “Sower Crout”; “To Boil Sydar”; “How To Boil Good Nudle Supe With Cut Meat.”
I noticed a recipe for “How to Make Boild Cheas” that instructed three pots of thick milk scalded “then for smear case stir it a little every ten minutes as it dont stick to the bottom of the pot.” Once the cheese is hung up in cloth, “take a candle with you” to the cellar so “no flyes gets on it.” The remaining process of straining, stirring and enhancing the cheese with butter, salt and cream takes many days.
“A Receipt for Cheas Cakes” uses that smearcase cheese to make a sweet cake, flavored with allspice and ginger.
This recipe might be contemporary with Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s smearcase cheesecake, yet it is so different, I had to try it. Besides, unlike some of the other recipes in the Hoffman cookbook, the instructions were somewhat intelligible.
The Hoffman Cook Book is held in the New York Academy of Medicine, perhaps due to its numerous home remedies. Thanks to the fantastic Manuscript Cookbooks Survey website, I recently came across the book, which is digitized and available online.
Although “The History of The Hoffman Paper Mills in Maryland,” a small book written in 1946 by May A. Seitz, doesn’t offer much insight into the cookbook itself, there is some information about William Hoffman’s involvement with the Revolution, politically and via paper supplies.
Seitz’ book also contains some old photos of third-generation Marylander William H. Hoffman’s Rockdale Papermill, the ruins of which now lie beneath Prettyboy Reservoir.
According to Seitz, “The name was taken from Prettyboy Branch, a small tributary of the Great Gunpowder Falls. Prettyboy Branch derived its name from a riding horse of the same name that belonged to a farmer through whose property the creek ran.”
This, sadly, seems to be the most interesting thing I learned while researching this post.
The Hoffman Cook Book nonetheless has more to share. The book may not be as old as its cover claims, but it’s old enough to hold intrigue. With its assortment of “supes,” “pickels,” cakes and puddings, and the German influences woven throughout, the collection holds many stories. The recipe that I made is another puzzle piece in the history of Baltimore’s beloved smearcase cheesecake. Within its dense penmanship, the Hoffman Cook Book reveals another snapshot of the history of the cuisine of Maryland.
Recipe:
“how to bake good cheas cakes take two pints good frash smoth smear case mash a tea cup full flowar well true the cheas and 5 eggs and a tea spone full fine allspice a tea spone full ginger and salt mash it all up together with a bit good milk to make it thin, it must be thin like jony cake doe then put pie crust in paty pans like for custarts then fill the pans nearly full case stuf then beat and egg and wash it on the chees all over the top with feders then bake am 3 quarter of an hour or a bit less will do eat am fresh”
Recipe from Hoffman Cook Book Manuscript, c. 1835-1870. Susanna Weinbrech Hoffmann. c1850.
