Tag: chicken

Eastern Sho’ Bar-B-Q Chicken a.k.a. Delmarva Barbecued Chicken

There is only one thing that excites me more than finding an old cookbook that I didn’t know about, and that’s finding a local dish that I didn’t know was local.

When Matthew Korfhage wrote to me last summer to ask about Delmarva Barbecued Chicken I was confused. We have a barbecue tradition in Maryland other than pit beef? Don’t organizations everywhere raise funds by selling chicken by the side of the road?

Maybe they do, but on the Eastern Shore, the chicken in question is a little bit different.

Baltimore Sun, 1984

With a sauce made from vinegar, oil, poultry seasoning, and the strange addition of an egg, this “barbecue sauce” is nothing like the dozens of ketchup-based personal barbecue sauce recipes found in my database.

Korfhage’s email inspired me to take a closer look at those recipes. It wasn’t long until I found exactly what I was looking for.

In none other than Maryland First Lady Helen Avalynne Tawes’ 1964 cookbook, “My Favorite Maryland Recipes” is a recipe for “Eastern Sho’ Bar-B-Q Chicken.” Later local cookbooks like “What Is Cooking On Party Line” and cookbooks from local fire departments had similar recipes. The style of chicken is particularly associated with volunteer fire departments, for which the roadside sales are a big money-maker.

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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.”

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Broiled Chicken Deluxe, Edna Karlik

Mrs. Ronie Venables made honorable-mention in the first annual “National Chicken Cooking Contest” at the Delmarva Chicken Festival in 1949. Were she able to prepare her fried chicken on a wood-burning stove, she told a Universal Press reporter, she could have beaten out Mrs. A.L. Karlik for first place. The Press reporter contrasted the two contestants by describing Karlik as “pretty [and] young,” and referring to Venables as a “70-year old farm woman.”

In that article, Venables shared her prize-winning recipe in vague terms:
“A chicken, salt, pepper, egg, milk, flour and shortening. She stews the chicken, seasons it, dips it in a mixture of egg, milk and flour then fries it.”

She declared that “the secret… is in putting the water in which the chicken is stewed on the chicken after it is fried.”

For her part, Mrs. Karlik told the Wilmington, Delaware News-Journal that she was “flabbergasted” to have beat out the other 140 contestants. Family and friends had persuaded Karlik to enter the competition. She triumphed with “Broiled Chicken Deluxe,” a recipe that she frequently made for her husband and 10-year old son.

  • Wilmington News Journal, July 1949. Karlik is 2nd from right.

You might think that Karlik and Venables would walk off into the sunset, Karlik with her prize-money and deep-freezer, and Venables with a fun memory, but that isn’t exactly what happened. Cooking contests may seem blasé today, but the Delmarva Chicken Festival and the accompanying cooking contest were a big deal.

For Edna Karlik, the memory of her victory would resurface again and again.

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Chicken Leek Cobbler, Gil French

“There used to be a stone yard at 26th and Charles and in it was a large tool box about 6′ by 4′ by 4′. This the older boys called THE HOT BOX, and they took delight in locking the younger boys in there for a couple of hours, and believe me by that time they were scared to death.” – Marion deKalb Clark in “Charles Village: An Edwardian Memoir,” 1969

For a little over a decade, I’ve lived around the borders of Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood. Although I was sad when I had to leave Mt. Vernon, I do enjoy access to lots of different grocery stores, parks and bus lines. I also have come to enjoy the sense of history that permeates the neighborhood spirit.

When “A Brief History of Charles Village” by Gregory J. Alexander and Paul K. Williams came out in 2009, the book was sold all over the neighborhood. The book told the story of the colonial Merryman’s Lott and Huntington land grants, and the neighborhood’s past as a retreat for wealthy Baltimoreans to move to in the summer. The origins of what we now know as Charles Village lie in the 1870s when the Peabody Heights Company acquired the land which was gradually built into the relatively-dense neighborhood.

A lot of the photos and information found in Alexander and William’s book also appeared in Baltimore Sun Columnist Jacques Kelly’s 1976 book “Peabody Heights to Charles Village.” Although that book is slimmer, it contains thorough research including building dates and builder names of almost every house in the neighborhood.

  • 2600 block of Maryland Avenue shown in “Peabody Heights to Charles Village” by Jacques Kelly. Photos originated from the Peale Museum
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Dok Gang Jung & Kutjulee, Ladies of the Bethel

The Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church of Baltimore was founded in June of 1979, with a parish made up of seven families. “Everyone was on the same boat, sometimes literally,” pastor Billy Park told the Sun in 2003. By then, more than 1700 people were attending Sunday services at the church.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed quotas that had been a barrier for many Asian people looking to immigrate into the United States. In the 1970s, Korea was one of the top countries of origin for immigrants into the U.S.

A 1978 article in the Baltimore Sun estimated that the population of Korean immigrants in the city numbered between 7000 and 14,000. Many members of the Korean community had been in the United States for five years or less. The article chronicled some of the issues Korean-Americans were facing: xenophobia and isolation, struggles with starting businesses in a troubled city, and planning educations for their children’s futures. Many of the issues remain the same today for immigrants from all over the world.

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