“Men become cooks because they have a love for the calling,” wrote Harry Franklyn Hall in “Good Housekeeping” in 1903. The article he wrote described the passion and career progression of men (specifically) in the food industry and the stress one must endure as he gains skills and experience to become “an eighth-degree cook.” Despite the annoying implication that only men can “excel in the art of cooking” and “reach its loftiest height,” the article details the many techniques Hall personally mastered in the rise from dishwasher to famed chef. Together with the listing of his places of employment in his 1901 book “300 Ways to Cook and Serve Shellfish,” it is closest thing we have to a career autobiography of Hall.
The 1958 cookbook by the National Council of Negro Women, the “Historical Cookbook of the American Negro,” opens with a photograph of Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln, opposite recipes for the first of January: “Emancipation Proclamation Breakfast Cake” and “Western Beef Steak” from Denver. “The Emancipation Proclamation New Years’ Day, 1863, is celebrated in all parts of the United States. The Council recipes assembled from the six geographical regions have been taken from the oldest files of Negro families,” the book explains below the recipes.
The subsequent recipe, from Council Regions III and IV is for “Southern Hopping John.” No further explanations are needed for what this recipe means and where it is from. The caption instead points out the similarity to another recipe in the book, for Haitian “Plate National,” a similar dish of rice and beans enjoyed in Haiti, where Independence Day is January 1st. The book also includes a rice and beans recipe from Ghana. Together, the recipes imply a powerful message about food and heritage.
The 1958 “Historical Cookbook of the American Negro” proves that a cookbook can be an object of delight without being full of glossy photos of food. The recipes in the book, interspersed with history and reproduced ephemera, take on new significance, offered as tributes to historical figures or events.
The cookbook’s editor, civil rights activist Sue Bailey Thurman, knew exactly what she was doing. As the founder and editor of the Aframerican Women’s Journal, she spearheaded publications efforts for the National Council of Negro Women, including this innovative cookbook. Recipes were solicited from different regional sections of the NCNW, and arranged in a chronological format around important dates. Thurman was a historian and she wove biographies throughout the book – including Maryland natives Harriet Tubman and Benjamin Banneker- as well as (of course) NCNW founder Mary McLeod Bethune and many other contemporary and historical figures.
In the preface, Thurman called the book a “palatable approach to history” – it was a way to celebrate food and cooking, while also presenting a summary of neglected aspects of black history.
Sadly, some of that history remains neglected today. While my grade schooling did include a fair amount of Langston Hughes (and this unforgettable, heartbreaking poem about Baltimore by Countee Cullen), I don’t recall reading the poetry of Frances Harper or even learning about her activism.
From Beef Broth to Banana Fritters, one of my favorite cookbooks to turn to for everyday recipes is “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County.” No book better encapsulates the range of delicious fare produced in the kitchens of Maryland’s home cooks.
As much as I love “Maryland’s Way” and “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland,” those books contain recipes from the state’s wealthiest families. The Canvasback Duck and Terrapin served in elite hotels and manors may have made our regional food famous, but the culinary talents behind those dishes was an outgrowth of the brilliant and humble cooking traditions captured in the “300 Years.”
Compiled in 1975 by “Citizens for Progress,” the book contains recipes from over 60 residents of St. Mary’s County. There is a history of stuffed ham included, with two different recipes. By far the most recipes were contributed by Theresa Young, whose daughter I spoke to a few years ago for this post.
Sometimes I feel like “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County” is kind of a crutch – a very easy book to turn to when I want to focus on African-American cooking in Maryland. We (historians, Marylanders, whatever…) are very lucky to have a document like this.
On the other hand, the book really is so great that it deserves repeat readings (and cookings.) This time around, I made “Southern Sour Milk Biscuits,” attributed to Mary Helen Dove and Mary Taylor.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t definitively identify either person. It is possible that Mary Helen Dove was a woman who was born around 1897 and passed away in Baltimore in 1981.
A farming family’s home interior, Beachville, MD, 1940, Jack Delano, loc.gov
Whether or not that is true, I often find evidence that the extended families associated with “300 Years” had connections in Baltimore city. Some moved to the city later in life, others would visit with family in Baltimore during the summer. This suggests the influence that the unique culture of Southern Maryland has had on the city I call home.
The concept of urban versus rural implies a lot of arbitrary cultural differences that should be questioned, especially in light of the series of events that have displaced or hindered generations of farmers (black and white).
During and after the Civil War, many Confederates fled Maryland. One was Joseph Forrest, who was a captain of the “Fourth Maryland Light Artillery.” In 1864, Forrest’s abandoned land was seized by General Lew Wallace for use by the Freedmen’s Bureau.
“The purpose of the Bureau was to protect former slaves and provide living quarters and a livelihood where possible… These plantations were called ‘Government Farms.’ The only properties abandoned and seized in all of Maryland were in St. Mary’s County.” – Maryland Historic Trust
House and garden of William Sanders, Farm Security Administration Saint Inigoes, Maryland, Jack Delano 1940, loc.gov
All in all, the Freedmen’s Bureau in St. Mary’s County seized 3000 acres of land for 500 Black citizens to farm. When President Andrew Johnson granted amnesty to the exiled Confederates who had once claimed the land, the white planters got to take the land back. Forrest was pardoned in 1865.
Most Black farmers were tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Those who were able to get land for themselves were often displaced by other circumstances, as in the heartbreaking case of the Dyson family.
My attempts to identify Mary Helen Dove or Mary Taylor entailed another viewing of “Now When I Look Back,” by Andrea Hamer, a book of oral histories and Farm Security Administration photos. I strongly recommend you get yourself to the Maryland Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library and spend some time with this book. It’s a meditation on history’s legacy, the earth’s bounty, perseverance, and community bonds. All of the things that make Maryland’s history – and our food – so fascinating.
Recipe:
2 Cups flour
.5 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoon shortening
1 Cup thick sour milk*
Sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening. Stir in the milk. Roll to 1/2″ thick on a floured surface. Cut, place on a greased or parchment-covered sheet. Bake at 425° for 15-17 minutes.
Modern pasteurized milk generally doesn’t get sour in an appetizing way. If it’s a little off it may be used. I used a mix of milk, yogurt, and beer and left it out overnight to get a nice ‘funk.’
Recipe adapted from “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County”
Abby Fisher’s 1881 book of recipes opens with an apology. Unable to read or write, the former slave and accomplished Southern cook apparently felt uneasy about producing the cookbook that was so often requested of her. Never mind that her contemporaries – such as Mrs. B. C. Howard and Mrs. Charles H. Gibson – didn’t express concerns about filling their books with copied and untested recipes, not to mention the countless recipes gleaned and pilfered from slaves and servants. These (usually) wealthy women continued to profit off of unpaid labor, if not monetarily then by reputation at least. When Abby Fisher wrote/dictated “What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking,” she was not only leaving history with a precious document – she was claiming a legacy for herself.
I was recently delighted to come across a blog focused entirely on the recipes found in Mrs. Fisher’s cookbook. [2/8/19 – it has come to my attention that the blog is no longer up and is sadly not archived. I have replaced a few links with substitutes]
There is some good biographical background on Mrs. Fisher on Nicholas Mimms’ blog – including insight into her post-emancipation life in San Francisco, and even photos of her unmarked grave site.
If you enjoy Old Line Plate you will definitely want to follow ‘What Mrs. Fisher Knows.’
I reached out to Mimms for more information on the project:
I picked Mrs. Fisher because she was a Southern cook who ended up in San Francisco, and I’m from the South (from Georgia) and also found myself in San Francisco. So yeah, I guess our shared geography was one of the first things that first interested me in her book. I was actually looking to do Mary Randolph’s The Virginia House-Wife, but Mrs. Fisher’s book was much more manageable and her story (what we know of it at least) much more inspiring.
Abby Fisher was quite an impressive figure. To put her story into perspective: She was enslaved for the first ~30 years of her life. After emancipation, she moved across the country with her family (and remember, this was no easy task back then—the transcontinental railroad had only just been constructed, and the West was still pretty “Wild”). Within three years of arrival in San Francisco, she had earned several awards in recognition for her cooking ability, started her own business, and published one of the first cookbooks written by a Black woman. All of this, when slavery was a fresh memory. All of this, when women were relegated to the domestic sphere (and would not gain the right to vote for another 40 years).
Do you have any specific goal in mind for the blog?
I want to eventually cook through all of the recipes, modernize them with as little interference as possible, and put them all in one accessible place. I want Mrs. Fisher to get more recognition, since she’s too interesting and inspiring a person to be lost to time. Sadly, she’s buried in an unmarked grave in Colma, California. I’ve been to the plot where she and her husband are buried, but I wasn’t able to find a headstone.
While it was originally just gonna be a do-every-recipe-in-the-(historical)-book blog, I’ve become more and more interested in the person of Mrs. Abby Fisher herself, even more than the recipes. I’ve since added more “context” about her life, but it’s been really tough finding information about her at all. It’s still a work in progress, for sure…
Do you have any culinary background to help you adapt these old recipes which are sometimes rather vague?
I don’t have a culinary background. I have a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Chemistry, but I bake things for fun. Maybe the chemistry helps a bit, but I really have no training beyond watching Food Network. If a technical challenge comes up (like making pie dough or the sponge-and-dough method for making bread), I just try to research as much as possible.
Are there any other sources that you like to use for cross reference?
I mostly use Google to find as many comparable recipes to cross-reference. One historical book I find myself coming back to a lot is Mary Randolph’s The Virginia House-Wife; Or, Methodical Cook (1824), which is one of the definitive 19th-century Southern cookbooks. You can read the transcribed text here, and find PDFs for free online.
Many of the recipes in Abby Fisher’s book have a parallel in Mary Randolph’s, so it serves as a good foil. Randolph’s book is just as expansive as Mrs. Fisher’s, if not more, covering as wide-ranging dishes as British Charlotte Russe, to Spanish Ropa Vieja, to “Gumbo, A West India Dish.” Randolph’s book is also much longer, but to be fair, she had the privilege of being literate whereas Abby Fisher did not; Mrs. Fisher had to write her book 100% from memory.
The Carolina Housewife (1847) by Sarah Rutledge is another that I’ve looked at (full text here). Also, sites like The Spruce, Serious Eats, and King Arthur Flour’s blog have all been generally helpful.
What insight have you gained from personally cooking the recipes?
I think one of the main insights I’ve gotten is how many things can get lost in translation. Mrs. Fisher, in her introduction, says that she’s going to detail the recipes as much as possible, “so that a child can understand it” (her words, not mine). And to her credit, the book is clearly detailed, with relatively exact quantities and methods, especially for the time they were written in. Her “child” quote still taunts me after every failed recipe…
In the journey from Mrs. Fisher’s mind, to the transcriber’s words, to my modern translation, to my attempted cooking, these recipes go through three ‘transformations’ where things can go wrong:
First, the original recipe could be transcribed incorrectly (She was illiterate, so her recipe book is actually transcribed from her words, and the transcriber’s pen may have missed certain instructions). Some recipes are very obviously mis-transcribed, like her Ginger Cookie dough that is just a dry powder (not enough liquid!).
Second, there could be differences in the ingredients and technology used now and used then; I try to account for these differences in my modern translations, but I’m definitely missing things. For example, every time cornmeal gets involved, the batter gets really dry, so I figure the cornmeal back then was definitely more coarsely ground than today’s “fine” grind.
And finally, I could just be botching the darned thing. I’ve definitely curdled eggs, mishandled dough, and overbaked cakes along the way, even in recipes that 100% should work.
So yeah, a lot of the recipes looked pretty good on paper, and only after trying them out, you see all the places they could be going wrong, whether it’s the recipe itself, the ingredients, or your clumsy hand.
Recipe #1 from Mrs. Fisher’s book
Have any of the recipes you’ve tried so far been particularly delicious or challenging?
One of my favorite recipes so far was her no-churn vanilla ice cream recipe. It’s a frozen combination of soft meringue and whipped cream, which I found odd, but it tasted just like some modern ice creams. Actually, it tasted mostly like those cheap artificial vanilla ice creams that are thickened with guar gum or carrageenan or whatever, but still delicious! And Mary Berry (of British Bake-Off fame) has a very similar no-churn ice cream recipe, so you know it’s good.
Her molasses-heavy ginger cake is also delicious (though the method is in a weird order), as well as her sweet potato pie, which isn’t flavored with typical “pumpkin pie spices” but with orange peel and juice. All the ones I thought were unqualified successes I gave a “recommended” tag on the website. The others aren’t quite there, either because something got lost in translation and the recipe isn’t too good, or I just failed colossally in making it. They could still be worth a try!
As for challenging recipes, I guess the Sally Lund recipe took me a few attempts. Sally Lunn is a no-knead, overnight-rising bread that originated in Bath, England and eventually made its way to the Southern colonies. Because it is (relatively) no-knead, I’ve been having difficulty with the final texture… I keep getting a soda bread-like, crumbly inside that tastes okay, but not as buttery and moist as I’d hoped for.
And don’t get me started on her popover (“Breakfast Cream Cake”) recipe…
To accompany this post, I attempted one of the recipes that Mimms has already completed. I can’t resist a good “what in the heck…?” recipe and so I went straight for “Cheese Pudding,” a baked casserole of shredded apple and cheese. The formula is reminiscent of Pineapple Casserole.
I actually like the combination of cheddar cheese and apples so I went in that direction. I added a grated shallot which is not inauthentic if you consider this a savory dish. I also used pepper-jack which I’m pretty sure did NOT exist in 1881 (see? the past wasn’t that great!)
After eating some very custard-y servings as pictured here, I stirred in another egg and baked the dish a little while longer, because certain household members couldn’t hang with the texture.
As a sweet dish, this could be made with a soft cottage type cheese. But where’s the adventure in that?
