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Strawberry Shortcake, Lida A. Willis (Baltimore Cooking School)

June 16, 2017January 12, 2019

“If alum is something to be proud of why conceal it on the label in type as small as the law permits?” – Alum in Baking Powder, 1927, Royal Baking Powder Company

“Today, the Royal Company is manufacturing and selling a phosphate type of powder such as they condemned and classed as a mineral poison a few years ago.” – The Truth About Baking Powder, 1928, Calumet Baking Powder Company

The libraries of Johns Hopkins don’t always have much to offer when it comes to my research. This post was a rare exception. I found a lot of reports and books about baking powder in the Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. I soon learned that this is because it exists in the grey area between food, chemical, and – some once believed – toxin. It was a potential cause for medical concern.

I selected two books: “Alum in Baking Powder,” published by the Royal Baking Powder Company in 1927, and “The Truth About Baking Powder,” from the Calumet Baking Powder Company in 1928. The former is meant to dispel any bad publicity or residual rumors from a 1926 Federal Trade Commission Hearing regarding Royal Baking Powder and their crusade against the ingredient alum. The latter book is a rebuttal of the former, in which Calumet wants the reader to look at the cutthroat tactics of Royal and wonder “just what are you so afraid of, Royal Baking Powder?”

1911 Royal Baking Powder Advertisement

If that all seems confusing, its because it is. A new book, “Baking Powder Wars,” by Linda Civitello, chronicles the bumpy history of baking powder from convenient godsend to (alleged) public health menace to kitchen staple.

A lot of recipes in older cookbooks contain long-forgotten ingredients like pearlash and saleratus. I’ve always been struck by the ingenuity of cooks of that era, and the way that information and ingredients would disseminate around the country. In the case of these baking powder predecessors, they had some help from cookbook authors like Eliza Leslie and Amelia Simmons. Use of these leaveners marked further diversion from American cooking’s British roots.

“American women should be given more credit for what they created and for the chemical experiments they conducted in their kitchens. Even if pearlash was not revolutionary by itself – which it was – the accretion of innovation created a new American cuisine.” – Baking Powder Wars, Linda Civitello

Aside from chemical leaveners and yeast, you may recall that another traditional way to get air into breads, especially in Maryland, is to beat the hell out of the dough for a half hour or more. Performing this process definitely makes one think of the history of servitude and slavery in Maryland, and Civitello draws a connection between that and Eliza Leslie’s distaste for Maryland Biscuits, which Leslie deemed unwholesome (despite including the recipe in her book). Leslie’s Maryland contemporary, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, also an abolitionist Quaker, simply declared that Maryland Biscuits are “very nice for tea.” But hey, as Leslie said “there’s not accounting for tastes.” (1)

Rumford Cook Book, probably 1895

Commercial baking powders were first developed in the mid-1800s, even before a reliable yeast was available to consumers. Housewives, cooks and bakers cultivated and maintained their own yeast. Between the different blends of flour, the variability of yeasts, and the makeshift baking powders, we can scarcely imagine the inconsistency of 19th century baked goods.

Regardless, according to Civitello, many women were skeptical of the chemicals, or else fiercely set in their independent ways. The burgeoning baking powder industry resorted to creative means to market their products to consumers.

The Royal Baking Powder Company released a cookbook in 1877, pushing their products with the allure of exciting new recipes. The book disparaged other baking powder formulas and offered hundreds of recipes featuring their product. (2)

As competition heated up, the war began. Royal promoted evidence that the ingredients in other baking powder formulations were responsible for indigestion. The most famous of this ‘evidence’ involved an 1880 study in which dogs were fed biscuits made with the different baking powder formulas – the Royal formula versus the “other leading brands” containing alum.

“Eight [alum baking powder] biscuits were given to dogs Nos. II and VI in the morning; in the afternoon dog No. II was very loose in his bowels, and dog No. VI very constipated. Five more biscuits were given in the afternoon and eight more the following morning, part of which were eaten. Both the dogs then were extremely constipated and apparently quite sick, although they did not vomit. To-day dog No. IV, in perfect health, was then given three biscuits… the dog became quite sick and vomited. In the afternoon and the next morning more biscuits were given him, but he would not eat.” – The Sanitarian, Volume 8, 1880

Very scientific. Loose stools AND constipation?!?! Even a DOG wouldn’t eat those biscuits!! Well I say! I’m smarter than a dog!

Nonetheless, the baking powder competition waged on; right on up to the Federal Trade Commission hearing in 1926.

Rumsford Chemical Works, whose creator Eben Horsford pioneered the original commercial baking powder formula, produced their own cookbook in 1895. Newspapers around the country advertised a “New Pastry Cook Book” by Baltimore Cooking School principal “L. A. Willis”(3) which could be obtained, for free, from Rumsford Chemical Works if you sent in a label (aka your ‘proof of purchase’) from Horsford Bread Preparation (an early self-rising enriched flour).

Rumsford was wisely capitalizing on the rising popularity of cooking instructors, and the cooking instructors capitalized right back.

Lida Ames Willis had been a pupil of Sarah Tyson Rorer, and made good on her credentials with a healthy amount of endorsements. She assisted with Gas & Electric company promotions, and also endorsed Knox Gelatine and Cottolene shortening. Alongside Rorer, Marion Harland, and a few other cooking instructors, Willis contributed recipes to a 1914 book called “Home Helps” – a promotion for Cottolene.

Home Helps, 1910, Duke University Library

The similar refrains from Cottolene about purity and indigestion make one wonder if there aren’t larger forces at play than some unsafe ingredient in baking powder.

Why did people used to suffer from so much indigestion? Well, for starters, nearly any ingredient in a recipe could have been adulterated or spoiled. Refrigeration was not widespread, canning practices were not standardized, and unscrupulous corporate activity was rampant. Maybe people had un-diagnosed sensitivities to gluten or FODMAPs. Maybe e. coli was all over everything (ew). But also… maybe humans just get a lot of indigestion?

Safety concerns are one of the pillars of marketing to this day – GMOs being just one obvious example. And my Rumsford Baking Powder tin assures me that the product is aluminum free.

The convenience of baking powder didn’t eliminate the use of yeast, or even the tradition of beaten biscuits. Still, we have baking powder to thank for a world of cakes with a light texture and a “faint metallic trace of bitterness” that “unfortunately, Americans grew to love.” (4)

If you’re wondering what happened to the dogs who ate biscuits made with Royal Baking Powder, well: “each dog was given as many biscuits as he would eat… Their bowels were not in the least affected.” Those dogs ate a ton of delicious biscuits “with appetite,” and their stools were perfect, which is more than I can say about my own dog who eats food that is made for dogs.

Recipe:

2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Quart flour
2 oz butter plus more for spreading on cake
cold milk
sugared strawberries
whipped cream

Sift 2 heaping teaspoonfuls Rumford Yeast Powder, and 1 teaspoonful salt with 1 quart flour. Rub in 2 ounces butter and moisten to a very soft dough with cold milk. Mix quickly and lightly; pat out into a large round cake 2 inches thick; place in a large, square baking-pan and bake in a very quick oven 20 minutes. While hot pull apart; spread both halves with good, sweet butter, not pressing but dropping it on with a knife; spread the lower half with a thick layer of slightly crushed, sugared strawberries; put on the top crust, dust with sugar, heap with sweetened, whipped cream and garnish with a few large berries. Serve at once, and cut with a hot knife.

Recipe from The Rumford Bread and Pastry Cook by Lida A. Willis

I think I made this batter too wet. I didn’t bother making an adaptation of this recipe because you can find your own strawberry shortcake recipes out there. But I would have used twice as much strawberries or made half as much cake, and also maybe less milk.

(1) Eliza Leslie “Maryland Biscuits” recipe

(2) A 1920 version is available online. “ Housekeepers who have always used Royal Baking Powder with utmost satisfaction are sometimes misled into experimenting with baking powders containing questionable ingredients. “

(3) Spelled “Leida” in this book, her name appears more often as Lida and Lida is the name used in the census

(4) Culinary historian Karen Hess quoted in “Baking Powder Wars”. This book has much more history going on including corporate espionage and Clabber Girls trouble with the KKK – check it out if you’re into that kinda thing!

(Strawberry) Extract for Ice Cream

July 8, 2016May 31, 2019

While vacationing in 2015, on a day drive down the Delmarva peninsula, we found ourselves in the relatively sparse landscape of Bloxom, VA. We spotted a striped truck off of Route 13 with stenciled letters announcing “Mi Pequeña Taqueria” and pulled over into the scorching parking lot where this taco truck stood. We enjoyed classic tacos filled with meltingly tender tongue or smoky pork prepared ‘al pastor’, and topped with a modest sprinkling of diced tomato and onions. Optional hot sauce waited at the picnic table. This taco truck and the syndicated Spanish-language radio station we listened to were the only indications of another side of the Eastern Shore.

Every summer, droves of people pass to and from the beaches and beach towns, crowding into the narrow slices of paradise in an attempt to squeeze the most joy out of summer vacation days. Off of the back roads is a hidden workforce for whom summer means the opposite of vacation. Summer means crops to be harvested, one after another: strawberries, beans, tomatoes, fruit – first down South and then further North as the climate ripens crop after crop.

Aubrey Bodine, “Strawberry Picking” Marion Station 1953 (preservationmaryland.org)

As I did research on Strawberries for this post and the previous strawberry post, I was struck by the transience, the true impermanence of this workforce. Whereas immigrant groups have been known to come for the labor, weaving new traditions into local culture, and some people settling down to become a permanent part of it, farm labor is so seasonal and isolated that some of us may hardly know that thousands of people are living nearby.

In our region, it seems pretty glaring that the economic predecessor to this work force was slavery.

After emancipation, the system of labor migration fell into place. In some instances, employers were even caught re-enslaving their “employees.” Involuntary servitude cases occur to this day.

An 1891 Baltimore Sun article described the life of strawberry pickers living in the “farm barracks”:

“About ten thousand men, women and children, armed with cooking utensils and bed clothing, have just invaded Anne Arundel county. Here they will remain until the last vestige of the season’s crop of berries, peas and beans have disappeared… The strawberry pickers are recruited from the neighborhoods about the packing-houses in Baltimore, and they are of almost every nationality. Bohemians, Poles and Germans predominate, with a fair sprinkling of Americans, Italians and colored people.

The barracks where the pickers live while on the farms vary according to the means of the farmer and the size of the patch… often they are simply old tenant houses… The life is as near gypsy-like as anything can be. The first thing done is to build a fireplace of mud in the open air, which is used in common by all the pickers.” – Army of Harvesters, The Sun May 27, 1891

Despite describing the sparse sleeping quarters where workers “sleep close” sometimes even sleeping outside, plus the long hours, and the watchful eyes of the “row boss” ensuring they don’t “eat as many berries as they pick,” the article depicts the situation as a fun “summer vacation” for the workers.

In 1900 the Sun reported that hundreds of African-Americans from the Eastern shore flocked to the strawberry-picking jobs in Anne Arundel County and then in Delaware. This was the height of the strawberry boom and there were not enough laborers to go around.

The labor shortage didn’t last long, however, and job competition may have fueled a spate of terrorism in 1937, as black laborers’ cabins in Somerset County were mysteriously burned to the ground. Several people were killed, and although a coroner’s jury ruled the fires an accident, the State’s Attorney was on record suspecting foul play. The Sun pointed out that even accidental fires should have merited scrutiny of the housing conditions.

Shortly after, an ample labor source came from WWII “prisoners of war.” A few of the camps were later used to house migrant workers.

The state created a commission to tackle the issues of housing and healthcare for the large force of migrant workers in Maryland. Their reports offer at least some insight into the demographics of workers and their lives in labor camps.

Abandoned Migrant Camp, Bishopville MD, Lee Cannon

The commission reported in 1983 that of the 57 licensed migrant camps in Maryland “more than a third experienced major deficiencies in meeting established health and safety standards.” Westover was a particularly infamous large camp in Somerset County:

“The Westover Camp, once a World War II holding pen for German prisoners, has acquired such notoriety that migrants from as far away as Texas refuse to stay there… Families live in single-room units without running water. Most units have refrigerators and small gas plates for cooking; sometimes doors, sometimes not. Latrines offer stools without stalls, gang showers with no privacy… ditches filled with stagnant water and.. gaping bins of garbage…” – Migrant Workers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore (1983)

In 2014, public health official Thurka Sangaramoorthy reported on her blog that she was “astonished” at the camp’s cleanliness and upkeep, considering its past reputation.

Sangaramoorthy’s website offers a more recent look into the humanitarian issues that still exist in some of Maryland’s labor camps.

While the workforce is now comprised largely of people of Mexican origin, there have been varying percentages of African-American, Haitian, Guatemalan, and Puerto Rican people making up significant numbers of workers over the years. Workers keep to each-other and their families, and travel too frequently to leave many obvious signs of influence on local culture. Aside from the occasional taco truck spotting, many Marylanders have no awareness about this aspect of our economy. And yet most of us partake in it- at the grocery store, the produce stand, and yes, when we eat those ‘fancy’ tacos on the way home from the beach.

Recipe:

1 Pint sharp vinegar
5 Quart strawberry
1 Lb brown sugar

“1 pint sharp vinegar poured on 1 quart of strawberries, to remain 24 hours. Then strain it on a second quart of fruit, and so on until you get the extract from 5 quarts of strawberries; add to it, 1 pound of brown sugar. Then boil and keep skimmed; then let it cool before bottling it. Cork it tightly and keep it in a cool place.Extract of raspberries may be made in the same way.”

Recipe from “The Queen of the Kitchen: a collection of “old Maryland” family receipts for cooking” by M. L Tyson

Extract shown next to Preserved Strawberries

To Preserve Strawberries

June 18, 2016January 13, 2019

“Once upon a time, people were wont to talk about the strawberry season and to look forward to it with delightful expectation. It brought visions of strawberry shortcake with mashed berries… and there was the social angle, the strawberry festival which brought together the elite of the neighborhood… Gone are these amenities, sacrificed beneath the juggernaut wheels of advancing science… In Europe, where national boundaries are close together and national self-sufficiency is a coddled ideal, seasons for strawberries are well-defined and short.
In this country, good ripe strawberries at a reasonable price are to be had in the depths of winter, long before strawberry plants have blossomed in Anne Arundel gardens… All this has been brought about through the wide expanse of Uncle Sam’s territory, and through the progress of science in horticulture, refrigeration and transportation. Good old strawberry, long may she wave!“ – Evening Capital, 1940 (Annapolis)

By the time the above editorial ran in the Evening Capital, the strawberry industry in Maryland had been waning for decades. In fact, this essay actually ran in local newspapers all around the country, with the county name swapped out accordingly. But 100 years earlier, in the mid-1800′s, “strawberry fever” was taking hold in the U.S., and Anne Arundel was “the most important strawberry district in the South.[1]”

Wild strawberries had been enjoyed by Native Americans and Europeans alike, before varieties from three continents mingled to create new and improved varieties that were earlier, hardier, redder, and self-pollinating. In 1767, Thomas Jefferson harvested strawberries, noting that “100 fill half a pint.” [2] Jefferson’s petite strawberries may not have had the full benefit of the change that was underway. A French spy named Amédée-François Frézier was dispatched to South America to observe what the Spanish were up to. King Louis XIV also wanted to get his hands on some legendarily large strawberries he’d heard about. Frézier brought specimens home from Chile which had some genes that produced a trait that neither the North American or European strawberries had going for them: size. These in turn were hybridized with North American varieties, and then eventually they made their way back to the Eastern seaboard.[3] This paved the way for the strawberry craze of the 1800′s.

illustration, The Strawberry by George M. Darrow

Increasing acreage was dedicated to strawberry cultivation as these bigger berries allowed for transporting them to markets around the state and beyond. It appears that it was not at all unusual for strawberry farmers to bring samples of their wares to local papers. Notices regularly reported enthusiastically on their quality. In 1893 the editors of the Evening Capital in Annapolis issued this challenge/request:

“The finest strawberries that we have seen this season was a box left at The [Evening] Capital by our old friend Mr. Joseph Beardmore near Camp Parole. We placed them in our front window and they were admired by every passerby… We don’t know the variety but we can vouch for the flavor… If there is another grower… that can excel this we would like to hear from him.”

Churches and civic organizations took advantage the strawberry’s popularity, raising funds each year by holding strawberry festivals in the spring. Newspaper ads from the mid-to-late 1800s demonstrate the popularity of these festivals. Ads appear in the Afro-American Newspapers as well, suggesting a widespread cultural phenomenon in those segregated times.

Some strawberry festival attendees may have partied pretty hard, if this 1868 ad is any indication:

Baltimore Sun, June 1868

Although Maryland hosted the highest acreage of strawberries in the nation by 1910, “Strawberry Fever” had caused overproduction which led to price decline. As the food system – and strawberries themselves- changed, strawberries could travel even longer distances and reach tables earlier than Maryland-grown strawberries. A few years of unfortunate weather, and the Maryland strawberry industry began to take a dive in the 20th century.

All love was not lost for Maryland and strawberries, however. The USDA was reviving the science of perfecting the strawberry. There, George Darrow developed at least twenty-eight varieties. He also conducted research and wrote a book about the history of the strawberry.

His book is available online in its entirety. His two sons opened “Darrow Berry Farms” in Glenn Dale in 1953. I remember going there to pick gallons of strawberries as a child. After hours in the scorching sun we’d have enough strawberries to freeze, eat fresh, and to preserve for the rest of the year. Darrow Berry Farms closed in 2000.

While we may not have the pressing need to capture gallons of strawberries in preserves before they expire, home-made preserves are still vastly superior than commercial preserves. Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s preservation method appealed to me because of the wine and brandy. My berries shrunk into comical little pellets in cooking but the juicy liquid is no less useful.

After paying a premium at the farmers market these past few years for strawberries that don’t live up to my memories, I’d gladly suffer the blazing hot sun and the temptation for immediate gratification to bring home gallons of Darrow Berry Farms strawberries for freezing, preserving, baking, and eating.

This is the first of several “strawberry-craze” era recipes I’ve made this year. Even with the high cost and my snobbery, I still like to get em while I can.

Recipes:

1 Lb strawberries
1 Lb sugar
1 glass wine, white
1 tb brandy
¼ tsp alum

Pick out the largest and best strawberries, remove caps and cover with sugar and white wine. Let them stand four or five hours. Drain the syrup and heat in a pan, skimming if necessary, before adding the strawberries, and ”to each pound put as much fine alum as will lay on the blade of a pen-knife“ (Lea’s words) Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about three minutes gently shaking the pan. (”But do not stir them with a spoon, as that will mash them.“) Scoop the fruit into a jar and let the syrup boil up before setting it aside to cool. When the syrup is cool, pour over the strawberries and add brandy to the top and seal.

”If you like your preserved strawberries, cherries, or peaches, to have a fine pale color, allow them to boil half the time recommended in the receipt, then spread the fruit thin on dishes, with but little syrup, pour the rest of the syrup also on dishes, and set them daily in the sun; if the weather be clear and the sun hot, four days will be sufficient. Preserves done in this manner do not ferment. You should spread a piece of gauze or netting over them to keep out insects or dust.“ – Elizabeth Ellicott Lea

Recipe adapted from “A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook: The Domestic Cookery of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea”

[1] “Strawberries, Peas, & Beans: Truck farming in Anne Arundel County” by Willard R Mumford.

[2] ”The fruit and fruit trees of Monticello” by Peter Hatch, quoting Jefferson’s Garden Book

[3] “The Strawberry from Chile” George M. Darrow (Chapter 4 of “The Strawberry”) This chapter is a good read!

*I am not considering these a shelf-stable item and they will be refrigerated and used with a few weeks

Maryland Wineberry Shrub

July 16, 2015June 30, 2019

There comes a time in the life of every seasonal fruit, when having been consumed to excess and then lent to some other assortment of creative uses, finally what is left of the fruit must be preserved. In modern times we have some options here. We have freezers and dehydrators, in addition to those methods of antiquity; preserving with sugar or pickling.
Another preservation method from antiquity is currently having its day (again) and that is the shrub.

“Shrub” can refer to a vinegar-based syrup made with fruit or herbs, or it can refer to a drink made from this syrup. In this case it will be fruit, substituting wineberries and blackberries for raspberries in Maryland Raspberry Shrub.

Wineberry Fool

July 8, 2015January 13, 2019

On a recent hike I noticed that the bushes around me were teeming with the fuzzy red buds of soon-to-be wineberries. I came back and gathered as much as I had the patience for in humid Maryland July weather.

I love to blather on about my childhood days spent gathering, preserving and baking blackberries but those days are indeed gone. The invasive wineberry is now berry queen of mainland Maryland field and forest.

The upside of that is that wineberries are delicious, and that I don’t feel much guilt about tackling their thorny branches, plundering the generous sweet raspberry-like fruits to my hearts content.

The recipe for Raspberry Fool is printed in the “Maryland’s Way” cookbook from a book belonging to Hammond-Harwood house resident Mrs. F.T. Loockerman. The famous Annapolis house was bought for Frances Townley (married name Loockerman) by her father, Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase.

F.T. Loockerman miniature, Robert Field 1803.

The English origin of this dessert is perhaps obvious from its name. If it’s a ‘fool’, a ‘trifle’, or a ‘mess’ then you can safely assume Old World origin.

Many old dessert and beverage recipes tend to call for raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and sometimes blueberries interchangeably.

Although the recipe instructs it to be served with ‘wafers’, my use of vanilla wafers was probably less appropriate for the period.

Modern vanilla wafers would more likely be known as some kind of “little cake,” and “wafers” or biscuits could mean something such as the popular Naples Biscuit, or a dainty wafer made in a press, much like a waffle cone.

This made a refreshing summer snack, wafer scandal notwithstanding. I’ll bet “wafer scandal” is probably some type of British dessert…

Recipe:

2 Cups wineberries or other berry
.5 Cup sugar
.5 Pint whipping cream

Clean and dry berries, add sugar and let stand to extract juice. Mash berries slightly, put in a pot and bring slowly to a boil. Cook until soft, strain through a sieve and chill. When the juice is cold, whip the cream and add the fruit to it. Refrigerate or freeze for at least two hours before serving.

“Any other fruit may be used for a Fool. Serve with wafers or sweet biscuits.”

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