Tag: baltimore

Kapusta And Kilbash (and Sauerkraut for Thanksgiving)

A different version of this essay appears in Festive Maryland Recipes: Holiday Traditions from the Old Line State.

Sauerkraut came to Baltimore with German (and later, Eastern European) immigrants, but it made the leap to the dinner tables of Baltimore’s other citizens, in particular alongside the Thanksgiving turkey. 

Much has been written about this peculiar phenomenon, with a new flurry of articles and social media posts coming out each year.

In an Instagram post made by the catering company H3irloom Food Group, Chef Tonya Thomas posed proudly with a plate. “Thank you to all of our customers who ordered Chef Tonya’s sauerkraut to add to their holiday spread,” read the caption.

“No matter who you are and what your race, in Baltimore, sauerkraut is on the table at holidays,” Thomas told me. She can trace the sauerkraut tradition in her family back for generations, to well before the 20th century. When Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, Germans were the largest group of immigrants in Baltimore, she noted.

In many places where sauerkraut is eaten, it is stewed with meat cuts or sausages for extra flavor. This was a good fit for Black home cooks’ practice of using every part of an animal, and Tonya’s grandmother cooked hers with pigtails. Tonya eventually began to flavor her own sauerkraut with smoked turkey instead of pork. More recently, she has flavored the sauerkraut with vegetable stock and spices instead of meat, to accommodate H3irloom’s vegan guests. 

Sauerkraut spread in Festive Maryland Recipes

The formula for sauerkraut itself is so simple that only a handful of recipes appear in my Maryland cookbook collection. It’s also long been available for sale in prepared form.

In Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s 1845 cookbook “Domestic Cookery,” the two recipes for sauerkraut are labeled as “cabbage,” suggesting that sauerkraut may have been the primary use for cabbage in her household.

The earliest Maryland recipe calling the dish by name is in the 1870 “Queen of the Kitchen,” by Mary Lloyd Tyson. Had Tyson wanted to, she could have purchased prepared sauerkraut at William Bodmann’s Pickling House and Vinegar Depot on Howard Street. 

Continue reading “Kapusta And Kilbash (and Sauerkraut for Thanksgiving)”

Chicken in Cucumber Sauce, Ann Grieves

Ann Grieves was already known for her cooking by the time her recipe appeared in “Private Collection: A Culinary Treasure,” published by the Women’s Committee of the Walter’s Art Gallery.

The beautiful hardbound cookbook generated some press, and has enjoyed a relatively decent amount of longevity on Maryland bookshelves, if not Maryland kitchens. With an introduction by James Beard, and over fifty illustrations from the Walters’ collections (including eight color plates), the fundraising cookbook has become a cherished item for many, even with used copies available inexpensively.

“A small group from the Women’s Committee poured over more than a thousand recipes before deciding on a collection which they believe reflects the lifestyle of Marylanders,” write Martha H. Schoeps in the Baltimore Sun in 1973.

Nearly ten years later, in 1981, the Sun quoted Harborplace bookseller Arlene Gillis saying that “Private Collection,” was a bestseller at her store “Books for Cooks,” along with the 1963 Hammond-Harwood House fundraiser “Maryland’s Way.”

A few months before “Private Collection” was published, in July of 1973, the Sun ran a feature on a group called the “Clean Plate Club.”

Continue reading “Chicken in Cucumber Sauce, Ann Grieves”

“Fudge-It,” Mary Pat Clarke

Writing about contemporary politicians invites commentary on grievances, which makes me hesitate to make these kinds of recipes. As a resident of Baltimore, it is hard to imagine how history will look from the future. I imagine some more objective version of myself reading over these accomplishments and failures, but honestly, even Baltimore politics of the 70s and 80s leave me a little bewildered.

Still, if constituent services is any measure of a councilperson’s effectiveness then there is little debating that Mary Pat Clarke had a long and successful career. A Baltimore Sun article about her December 2020 retirement belabored that point. A summary of her political career was bracketed with statements about how she would be remembered most for “fixing prosaic problems for residents.” Filling potholes and restoring streetlights is pretty uncontroversial.

Clarke was born Providence, Rhode Island in 1941. After earning degrees from Immaculata College and the University of Pennsylvania, she ended up in Baltimore with her family in the late 60s. According to a Sun article from when she was elected President of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation in 1971, Clarke then lived with her four children in the Tuscany-Canterbury neighborhood.

After her election to Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Clarke was a regular fixture in the Baltimore Sun’s local news pages. GHCC operated a children’s summer day camp, organized Youth Corp cleanups of Wyman Park, and organized programming for Greater Homewood’s senior citizens.

Clarke’s husband J. Joseph Clarke had been a delegate who lost his seat to Joseph R. Raymond. In 1975, Mary Pat beat out Raymond for the New Democratic Club endorsement for city council. The Sun covered the endorsement as a bit of revenge. J. Joseph Clarke went on to be a developer in Baltimore. His company is responsible for many projects, including the demolition of the historic Southern Hotel.

After winning the council race, Mary Pat’s career in Baltimore City Politics lasted 45 more years. Those years included a mayoral run, work on various committees, two stints as Council President (and an earlier failed campaign for that office), a clash with the Harborplace Hooters, and various bills and stances, some worthy and some ill-advised. Which are which is up to your own discretion.

The Evening Sun, 1973. Caption: “MRS. CLARKE—With John, Susan, Erin and Jenny”
Continue reading ““Fudge-It,” Mary Pat Clarke”

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.

An illustrated atlas of Cecil County, Maryland, 1877, loc.gov.
Red arrow shows location of Presbyterian Church.
First Presbyterian Church, Maryland Historical Trust
Continue reading “Chow Chow, Mrs. Anna Humes”

Mapping the 1911 Baltimore Sun Recipe Contest & “Crabs And Bacon,” Miss H. A. Blogg

There has probably been no greater force for the dissemination of recipes developed by home cooks than recipe contests.

State and county fairs in the 19th century hosted many cooking contests as a part of their “ladies” programming. These fairs were an opportunity for women gather and to show off their “domestic arts”, from needlework to baking and cooking. In my research about White Potato Pie, I came across a “white potato custard pie” category at the 1880 Cecil County Agricultural Society exhibition. The level of specificity suggests a large amount of prizes to be awarded. The other pie categories that year were Green Peach, Dried Peach, Green Apple, Dried Apple, Grape, Cherry, Gooseberry, Currant, Pumpkin, Cocoanut, Lemon, and Apple – and that is just for pies. There were contests for preserves, cakes, breads, cheeses, and more. The dollar prize adjusts to about twenty dollars in “today money.” Considering the amount of effort to just travel to these events, it was clear that the glory of winning was an incentive as well.

It wasn’t long before companies selling ingredients and kitchen appliances figured out that they could use contests as a way to get publicity – and to crowdsource recipes to promote their products. Companies like Heinz, Borden, and Kraft have held recipe contests over the decades. Sometimes, the winning recipes ended up published in promotional cookbooks and advertisements. Newspapers used recipe contests as a way to engage women readers. Home economists and cooking teachers were often employed as judges.

In November 1910, hundreds of women showed up to the Bernheimer Brothers store in downtown Baltimore to enter their bread loaves, biscuits, pies, doughnuts, and cakes to be judged by “representatives of local newspapers.” The Baltimore Sun described some of the cakes as “ornamental in the extreme” and touted the “skill shown by Baltimore women” but did not print the names of any of the winners or the names of the winning items.

Perhaps the Sun was inspired by the success of this contest to hold their own contest in early 1911.

  • Advertisement for the recipe contest in the San Francisco Examiner, 1901
Continue reading “Mapping the 1911 Baltimore Sun Recipe Contest & “Crabs And Bacon,” Miss H. A. Blogg”

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