Dr. Edna Dorothy Meshke, like most of the contributors to “Maryland Cooking,” was a home economist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: many of us have no idea how much we owe to Home Economics educators for creating, sharing, and fine-tuning classic recipes, and for raising the expectations of what a recipe can be.
Reinhold and Bertha Meshke immigrated from Germany to Minnesota in 1889. Their young cousin Fred made the journey in 1889 help the couple on their farm. Once established in America, Reinhold and Bertha had three daughters: Hazel, in 1899; Lucile, in 1904, and Edna, in 1907.
In 1930, at age 23, Edna was teaching at a public school while living in Faribault, Minnesota with her parents, who had retired from farming, and her sister Hazel, who was a nurse.
Edna earned a BS and PhD from University of Minnesota, and a MA from Columbia. These impressive credentials took Edna all around the country.
In 1938 she taught at the University at Buffalo. In 1943 she was at the University of Wisconsin. Some time in the 1940s, she led the Home Economics department at Butler University in Indiana. At some point, she worked at Pennsylvania State University. Throughout these years she continued to appear in Faribault city directories, leading me to believe that between school terms, she returned to live with her parents and sister at their home 711 1st Street.
Despite her wealthy background, Lea’s culinary style is fairly rural. Her book contains a lot of information on bread baking, calling bread “the most important article of food.” She included instructions for baking bread in a dutch-oven, brick oven, or a stove. The brick oven instructions are particularly detailed:
“If you have a large family, or board the laborers of a farm, it is necessary to have a brick oven so as to bake but twice a week… If you arrange every thing with judgment, half a dozen loaves of bread, as many pies or puddings, rusk, rolls or biscuit may be baked at the same time. [To rise bread overnight] the sponge should be made up at four o’clock in the afternoon.
You should have a large tin vessel with holes in the top, to keep bread in; in this way, it will be moist at the end of the week in cool weather.
Coarse brown flour or middlings makes very sweet light bread…
It is very important to have good oven-wood split fine, and the oven filled with it as soon as the baking is out [so it stays] ready and dry. Early in the morning, take out half the wood, and spread the remainder over the oven… light a few sticks in the fire… when it is burnt to coals, stir them about well with a long-handled shovel made for the purpose.
When it looks bright on the top and sides, it is hot enough; let the coals lay all over the bottom till near the time of putting in the bread…
Put in the bread first, and then the pies; if you have a plain rice pudding to bake, it should be put in the middle of the front, and have two or three shovels of coal put round it… pies made of green fruit will bake in three-quarters of an hour. Rusks, or rolls, take about half an hour.
When all is taken out, fill the oven with wood ready for the next baking.”
Bread was obviously a central part of her culinary routine. In addition to managing the baking, this would entail maintaining the live yeast cultures, and possibly included blending flours to suit her needs, from locally available types of wheat.
Elizabeth Ellicott Lea
For yeast, Lea preferred hop yeast, made by feeding yeast with a slurry of flour and water boiled with hops. Yeast could also be made with potatoes, corn flour or milk.
When I saw that some people from the Baltibrew group were doing a wild yeast capture, my interest was piqued. I followed the blog all summer as they went through the phases of attempting to isolate wild yeast strains, examining them, and ultimately brewing beer with them. Of the initial sixteen attempts, four captures were free enough of mold or airborne contaminants to experiment with. The strain I received came from a tree in Locust Point.
This recipe for “Moonshines” is fairly mysterious. Outside of the Hammond-Harwood House cookbook, I couldn’t find an origin for it. What is most mysterious of all is why anyone would make their own crackers. Even the recipe in Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen (1873) entitled “Crackers for Tea or Lunch” goes like this:
See that? Just buy the damn crackers. But I was going to a pimiento cheese recipe party and I figured “why not,” so I made these sesame crackers.
The recipe, which also appears in the Southern Heritage Cookbook Library as “Maryland Moonshine Crackers,” was contributed to Maryland’s Way by Mrs. F. F. Beirne of Baltimore.
Baltimore Sun, October 1969
The name Francis F. Beirne (1891-1972) is most associated with his history of Baltimore, “The Amiable Baltimoreans,” among some other local history books and a humor column in the Evening Sun.
Mrs. Beirne was a historian in her own right, as it turns out. Born Rosamond Harding Randall in 1894 to a postmaster/lawyer, Randall attended Bryn Mawr (which she later wrote a history of.) She served on the Mt. Vernon (VA) Ladies Association board of regents for ten years, and co-authored a biography of Samuel Chase. (The book was published after her death.)
Rosamond also wrote history columns for the Baltimore Sun, including a three-part history of Baltimore City’s street names in 1914. This column introduced me to the fact that Baltimore once had a street named “Turtle Soup Alley.”
The Bryn Mawr history, “Let’s Pick the Daisies” has a preface in memory of Rosamond Randall Beirne, recalling her “bright eyes and handsome pompadour” during her days as a student there. “Rosamond’s human interests were wide,” wrote Millicent McIntosh, “as was her capacity for friendship with people of all ages.”
Rosamond was actually at a meeting of the Mount Vernon Association when she died in 1969. Walker Lewis wrote to the Baltimore Sun to eulogize Mrs. Beirne as a talented author and historian whose “mere presence made one feel more comfortable.” Baltimore, he wrote, had lost “one of its truly great ladies.”
Recipe:
1 egg
2 Tablespoons lard
2 Tablespoons butter
.25 Cup milk
2 Cups flour
.5 Teaspoon baking powder
.5 Teaspoons salt
1 egg white
sesame seeds
Beat egg until light; melt shortening and add to milk. Sift flour with baking powder and salt, and add to egg alternately with milk and shortening. Work well and chill dough. Break off a small amount of dough at a time and roll thin as your finger nail. Sprinkle with a little dry flour as you work which will make them easier to handle and crisp. Cut out with biscuit cutter, brush with unbeaten egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake quickly in a 400° oven from 8 to 10 minutes, watching carefully. Serve with soup or sherry.
Recipe from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cook Book
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”
“Dozens of AFRO readers… have kept the AFRO switchboard busy since last week’s edition published a recipe for cornbread made by Mrs. Ronald [Fanniejoe] Reid of 1306 W. Lanvale St.” – Afro-American, February 4, 1956
After The Afro-American printed Harlem Park resident Fanniejoe Reid’s cornbread recipe in January 1956, the recipe kind of went ‘viral.’
One anonymous reader wrote in to inquire about employing Mrs. Reid. “Mrs. Norma Gladden of 816 N. Calhoun St., who admitted being proud of her ‘southern cooking,’ said she had never tasted so delicious a cornbread,” wrote the Afro-American in the follow-up article. “Mrs. Estelle Owens of 3213 Piedmont Ave. said that the recipe was the chief subject of conversation at the meeting of her lodge on Wednesday night.”
The Afro-American, 1956
Reid was a trained chef who was also “a regular attendant at AFRO cooking schools.” She’d worked at a hotel in Ocean City, at Baltimore public schools, as well as taking on occasional private catering jobs. After 1956 she became known as “the cornbread lady” to readers of the Afro-American.
Reid was born Fanniejoe Nixon in Baltimore on February 15, 1912. Both of her parents, Voyd and Louis Nixon, were born in Maryland, and their parents before them. The family lived on the 700 block of Caroline Street along with Voyd’s mother and several extended family members.
Although the 1930 census lists Fanniejoe’s job as waitress in a tea room, she was also trained as a beautician and established a salon at Lafayette and Gilmor. This is presumably how she met her husband, a beauty supply salesman. Ronald C. Reid was born in Jamaica in 1906 and came to Baltimore as a child. He’d been a waiter at the famous Hotel Rennert before getting into beauty products sales. After the two married in 1930, she turned the operation of the salon over to him and she once again focused on cooking.
Fanniejoe & Ronald Reid in the Afro-American, 1935
In the 1940 census, the Reids are shown residing at 1532 Harlem Avenue with seven of Fanniejoe’s family members, plus two lodgers. These type of living situations were very common in Baltimore, where the restrictive segregated housing rules provided limited areas for even middle-class, well-connected Black citizens to live.
The immediate and robust reaction to Fanniejoe Reid’s cornbread recipe gives interesting insight into the relationship between the (primarily female) readership and these type of recipe columns (or at least those in the Afro-American). Readers tried the cornbread within a week of the article’s printing. They reached out to the paper to respond, and to Fanniejoe at home on the telephone. “I can’t get away from the phone long enough to do my meals,” she told the Afro-American.
Following the lively response to the cornbread recipe, Fanniejoe Reid was given her own column in the paper, entitled “Cooking Is Fun.” Over the next four years she regularly shared advice on cooking and hosting. She told readers “how to put appeal in Lenten Menus” with baked salmon and oyster omelets. Reid asserted that despite the French reputation for ragout “there are some delightful stews that have come down through our American mothers.” She shared recipes for everything from peach cakes to salads, sweet potato pone, corn dumplings, “sumptuous sandwiches,” and Cointreau chiffon pie. When readers requested recipes, she was always ready to oblige.
Reid with schoolchildren, Afro-American, 1956
“Cooking should never be a utilitarian thing,” she wrote. “You should get fun out of the hours you spend in your kitchen.” Still, she often dispensed shortcuts for those who didn’t share in her enthusiasm for the culinary arts.
It appears that the “Cooking is Fun” column was turned over to a Betsy Patterson in April of 1960. Fanniejoe’s final column shared some hot breads, tips for scrambled eggs and muffins, and a recipe for “Glazed Pineapple Fingers,” a pineapple scone with icing. No fond farewell to readers.
Fanniejoe Reid passed away in 1973, and Ronald in 1998. Her legacy in the Afro-American women’s pages remains enshrined in the archives, and in the food of any family who ever saved a recipe from “the cornbread lady.”
Recipe:
Notes:
About 30 minutes will do it. I’ve made Fanniejoe Reid’s cornbread a couple of times. It may go without saying, but in addition to “the mixing,” the cornmeal makes a huge difference! My favorite so far has been this Hodgson Mills stuff which has a natural but not overbearing sweetness and a nice… “tooth” or whatever. Fanniejoe says its fine to leave out the sugar or adjust the salt because “a good cook always aims towards pleasing the tastes of the ones she is cooking for.”
