If one wishes to emulate the classic flavor of terrapin, there are a few options. Perhaps the most famous(?) involves boiling a calves head. A 1900 article in the Baltimore Sun claimed that “Muskrats when served by the Eastern Shore cook as ‘mock terrapin’ will challenge the epicure to distinguish it from the real Chesapeake diamond-back.” Muskrats and calves-heads being hard to come by these days, the most appealing option uses cooked chicken. “Chicken terrapin” often appeared in housewives’ columns as a clever way to turn humble leftovers into something elevated nearly to the status of Maryland’s most famous gourmet dish.I actually suspect that Chicken Terrapin may have originated outside of Maryland. Why make an imitation of something that was so abundant? Chicken terrapin recipes appear in 19th-century newspapers in places like Kansas, Michigan, and Western Alabama.
Maryland can never say no to a good chicken dish, however, and before long Chicken Terrapin was a standard recipe in local cookbooks and newspaper columns. It died out by the 1940s, for the most part. The last time a recipe for Chicken Terrapin appeared in the Baltimore Sun was 1965.
“Through the years, Maryland whiskey has become almost as renowned as Maryland fried chicken.” – Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State, Writers’ Program of the Works Progress Administration, 1940
In July 1945, war correspondent Ollie Stewart wrote to the Afro American of the frenzied scene in Berlin as American soldiers had raided Hitler’s “medal room” for souvenirs while the Russians looked on, laughing. “We must have looked silly as hell,” the journalist remarked.
Stewart left Berlin for Paris, where he’d just missed a banquet for the leaders of the Red Cross. The seven-course feast was served by an all-black staff – a new and novel experience for the Frenchmen. Although Stewart was at a loss to recall the full menu, owing to “so much French in the darn thing,” one dish stood out as “the big noise”: “Poulet frit Maryland.”
According to Stewart, the dish set a new standard for Parisian chefs. Some of them asked him “where is this place, Maryland?” The Afro-American shared the anecdote under the headline: “Maryland Gains Fame.”
Of all of the forgotten Maryland recipes, Maryland Fried Chicken may be the most misunderstood. It may even be impossible to understand. Since its nebulous inception, there has been little agreement on just what constitutes “Maryland Fried Chicken,” also known as “Fried Chicken, Maryland Style,” or sometimes “Chicken a la Maryland.” See? There isn’t even agreement on what to call it.
The “Purviance Family Papers” at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library contain a near syllabus of early U.S. History: “Revolutionary War activities”, “Civil War veterans’ activities”, “U.S. relations with Napoleon.” They also contain some of the oldest Maryland cooking manuscripts – two small books filled with handwritten recipes, remedies (my favorite is the “Cure For Weak And Weeping Eyes”), and some agricultural ‘lifehacks’ pasted into the covers.
E. [Elizabeth Isabella] Purviance recipe book, Purviance Family Papers, 1757-1932, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
A lot of the names alongside the recipes in “Maryland’s Way” are associated with the Navy. This makes sense since the Hammond-Harwood house is in Annapolis, but it is interesting to see the different families that came to this region because of the Naval Academy and ultimately became lifelong Marylanders.
Frank Jack Fletcher was an Admiral during World War II, a commanding officer during World War I, and a lieutenant at the battle of Vera Cruz – part of the U.S. involvement in the Mexican Revolution.
That’s a lot of wars. According to Naval History magazine, he got a bum rap. I don’t know what his rap is, bum or otherwise, and I doubt he was too involved with this chicken recipe, what with all of his travels, so I’ll leave it at that.
Mrs. Frank Jack Fletcher was Martha Richards from Missouri; her family owned a hardware store in Kansas City. It’s unclear how the two met, but they were married in a rush in 1917 due to the United States entering the First World War.
In the 1930’s, the Fletchers purchased the historic Araby estate in Charles County. The house at Araby was originally built in the mid-1700s, and updated in the mid-1800s. The family of Colonel William Eilbeck owned the estate, and it is said that their only daughter Sarah once resided there with her husband George Mason. George Washington’s diaries mention frequent visits to Araby.
Historic pancake recipes tend to refer to something more like crepes than the pancakes we currently know. Illustrations in the Mrs. Beeton books show the thin pancakes rolled and stacked; they could be filled with sweet or savory fillings.
The basic recipe for these chicken filled pancakes makes frequent appearances in the Aunt Priscilla column in the Baltimore Sun. With slight variations, it was printed in 1926, 1936 and 1943. The recipe that Mrs. Fletcher contributed to “Maryland’s Way” does not specify whether the chicken should be cooked, but cooked chicken is used in the Priscilla columns, sometimes suggested as a way to use up leftovers. I cooked the chicken first just to be safe.
While it is highly possible that Mrs. Fletcher encountered the recipe through the newspaper or somewhere else, it may be worth noting that in the 1940 census, she had a black servant named Theodore Hawkins. Frank Jack Fletcher was away on duty at that time, so Hawkins may have been hired to assist with things that the Admiral wasn’t available for. However, ten years earlier, Hawkins had been employed at a hotel or kitchen at a Naval site in Indian Head Maryland, under a cook named Daisy Taylor. As the appearances in Aunt Priscilla indicate, the creamy chicken pancakes were the kind of food expected under hotel chefs and caterers of Maryland. The recipe may have reached Mrs. Fletcher through her servant whom the family may have met at Indian Head (now Naval Surface Warfare Center). We can never know these things for sure but recipe genealogy is intriguing.
Frank Jack Fletcher survived all of the wars he served in, and died in 1973, with Mrs. Fletcher passing away just over a year later. Both are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Recipe:
.5 Lb mushroom
3 Tablespoon butter
2 tb grated onion or shallot
2 white onions
1 Cup finely ground chicken
1 Cup cream
salt
pepper, black
cream sauce
cheese, Parmesan
Chop mushrooms fine and sauté in 1 tablespoon butter with grated onion. Brown sliced white onions in 2 tablespoons butter, then remove onions with slotted spoon and save for another dish. Sprinkle chicken with flour and stir it into onion seasoned butter. Add mushrooms and cook gently for about two minutes. Add cream, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for a minute or two longer. Spread the chicken on crepes (recipe below) and roll up. Arrange them in an oven dish, cover with cream sauce, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350° for 5-10 minutes, until just browned.
Crepes:
1 Cup flour
1 whole egg plus 2 yolks
pinch salt
2 Cups milk
2 Tablespoons melted butter
Sift together flour and salt. Break egg into center; add 2 yolks. Pour in a little milk and milk with a fork until smooth. Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk; beat in butter. Cover batter and let rest for 2 hours. Batter should be the consistency of whipping cream. If it is too thick, whisk in more milk. Batter should be the consistency of whipping cream. If it is too thick, whisk in more milk.
To cook, melt additional butter in a pourable container. Heat a skillet and pour in a little butter. Turn skillet so that butter covers bottom and sides. When hot, ladle just enough batter to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned on each side.butter covers bottom and sides. When hot, ladle just enough batter to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned on each side.
Recipes adapted from “Maryland’s Way: The Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook”
“The disservice done the public by commercially fried chicken is perpetuating the fallacy that Southern fried, by definition, is crisp, crunchy, and deep fried. There is more to it than that, for there are other ways to fry a chicken.
So how does a Southerner fry chicken at home? He coats the disjointed chicken with seasoned flour and browns it in hot shortening or oil on both sides. Now for the decision: to crisp or not to crisp? With lid on and heat lowered, the chicken becomes meltingly tender, not the least bit crisp, and as Southern as any other. This can be carried a step further when the chicken is done, excess fat may be poured off, and a little water added. Lid on again for five minutes of steam, and there’s Southern fried fit for the gods.” – Southern Heritage Cookbook Library, “Plain & Fancy Poultry”
This week we will revisit Maryland Fried Chicken, briefly, to try out the dreaded “steaming” step.
First I will say that contrary to the above Southern Heritage quote, the steam step is far from conclusive.
I started to make a spreadsheet to track this. Here’s what I have so far:
I also cross-referenced my two favorite Virginia cooks, Mary Randolph (1824) and Edna Lewis (1976) and found them both serving their fried chicken with cream gravy.
According to The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani “The idea of making a sauce to go with fried chicken must have occurred early on, at least in Maryland, where such a match came to be known as “Maryland fried chicken.” By 1878 a dish by this name was listed on the menu of the Grand Union hotel in Saratoga, New York…“ (source) No mention of steaming.
This Serious Eats post explores the same subject, delving into whether to add that water to the pan, and coming to the conclusion “I don’t think [adding water is] a great idea, and I also don’t think it’s necessary: covering the pan for a portion of the frying traps more than enough of the steam generated by the chicken without pouring in additional water. I have a few theories about what this covering/steaming step accomplishes, the main one being that it helps the chicken cook more evenly despite its not being fully submerged in oil. “
Their final conclusion is: “Covering and steaming may seem antithetical to the goals of frying, but it’s pretty amazing how crispy the chicken ends up after the final minutes of cooking while uncovered.”
So its obvious that many Maryland cooks counted this step as a necessary part of their chicken cooking. I tried it and I found it tasty.. I mean it is fried chicken. It wasn’t as crispy but there was still a crispiness to the skin, and the meat was great. I think that tender fried chicken can be achieved without the water by attentive cooks and proper brining.
Recipe:
1 Cup flour
1 Teaspoon salt
.25 Teaspoon paprika
2.5 Lb cut up chicken, broiler-fryer
oil, vegetable
.25 Cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Cup milk
Combine first three ingredients in a plastic or paper bag; shake to mix. Place two or three pieces of chicken in the bag; shake well. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken. Reserve two tablespoons of flour mixture for the gravy.
Heat ½ inch of oil in a large skillet to 325; add chicken. Cover, and cook 7 minutes. Turn chicken; cover, and cook an additiona 7 minutes. Reduce heat; drain off oil, reserving two tablespoons of oil and the chicken in skillet. Add water to skillet; cover and continue cooking over low heat 20 minutes or until tender. Drain chicken on paper towels; transfer to a warmed serving platter.
Add butter to pan drippings, and melt. Scrape sides of skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen browned crumbs. Gradually add reserved flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Serve gravy with chicken.
Adapted from “The Southern Heritage Plain and Fancy Poultry Cookbook,” 1983
I suppose my next step would be to try the side-by-side comparison. I may have exhausted all possible chicken talk so please follow the Old Line Place Facebook page or twitter if you want to be updated on how that goes – or try it yourself and tell me about it!
If one wishes to emulate the classic flavor of terrapin, there are a few options. Perhaps the most famous(?) involves boiling a calves head. A 1900 article in the Baltimore Sun claimed that “Muskrats when served by the Eastern Shore cook as ‘mock terrapin’ will challenge the epicure to distinguish it from the real Chesapeake diamond-back.” Muskrats and calves-heads being hard to come by these days, the most appealing option uses cooked chicken. “Chicken terrapin” often appeared in housewives’ columns as a clever way to turn humble leftovers into something elevated nearly to the status of Maryland’s most famous gourmet dish.I actually suspect that Chicken Terrapin may have originated outside of Maryland. Why make an imitation of something that was so abundant? Chicken terrapin recipes appear in 19th-century newspapers in places like Kansas, Michigan, and Western Alabama.
