Mrs. Brown, the first-nameless protagonist of playwright Chandos Fulton’s 1873 novelette, responds witheringly to the news that a friend’s daughter has wed a man of modest means. “It was a love-match, I suppose,” her friend Mrs. Campbell told her, and Mrs. Brown “did not deign a reply.”
As the plot of Fulton’s novel unfolds, Mrs. Brown meddles in her own daughter Adele’s romantic life, breaking off a would-be “love-match,” to fix Adele up with a wealthier suitor. Adele’s marriage to the moneyed fellow is an unhappy one, and a scandal breaks out when people incorrectly suspect Adele of having an affair with another man. It turns out that Adele was just lonely, and when Adele’s cold-but-wealthy husband Mr. Dick comes to understand this, he becomes an ideal husband on command. Adele Brown and her ambitious busybody mother both get a happy ending. The original love-match man who broke Adele’s heart due to Mrs. Brown’s scheming in Chapter Four is never mentioned again.
Mrs. Brown’s desire for Adele to marry a wealthy man is symbolized by a status-symbol that serves as the book’s title: “A Brown Stone Front.”
Newspapers in New York City had been advertising “brown stone front” buildings for sale and rent since the 1840s. Other cities followed suit, and a “brown stone front” remained an attractive selling point in real-estate for the better part of the following century.
What was originally a cheaper and easier-cut alternative to marble and limestone became synonymous with success in America.
The preface for the Melwood Cookbook gives a lofty -if somewhat bewildering- purpose for the book:
“This book is compiled and published as a means of raising money with which to build a club house, in order that the aims and purposes of [the Woman’s Club of Melwood District] shall be the more fully realized… for when we shall have a place of meeting, to which we shall feel free to invite others of like aim, we may find in the free discussion of existing conditions, a solution that shall result in the bettering of ourselves, our homes, and our neighborhood, known as it is as a ‘Pretty fine place to live in’.”
Although the book was compiled in 1920 by women from the Upper Marlboro area of Prince George’s County, the overall collection of recipes gives an impression similar to late 19th century cookbooks by Southern ladies like Jane Gilmor Howard and Marietta Gibson.
The Melwood Cookbook’s primary author, Mrs. Percy Duvall (nee Matilda Roome) was born in 1864 in New York, but she fancied herself a “Daughter of the South.” Her mother Catherine* Wilcox had been from Savannah Georgia, born to a family of tobacco merchants. When the family fled north during the Civil War, Catherine met and married William Oscar Roome – a Union Army Captain. After Matilda was born, the Roomes moved from New York to northern Virginia.
Young Matilda, according to her biography in “Littell’s Living Age,” suffered after her mother died and her father remarried. Her stepmother, a “Long Island Yankee,” made her do household chores in spite of the family having “black servants.” Woe is me, poor little Matilda. Matilda escaped her tragic homelife by taking art classes and learning to paint.
Around 1890, Matilda married William Littell, a tennis friend of her brother. In an exciting scheme to support his new wife, Will Littell signed on with Dr. Frederick Cook aboard the Miranda – an expedition to the North Pole.
Meanwhile, Matilda put her art schooling to work. She went into business decorating lampshades and selling them to local shops in New York. The lampshades became so popular that they were shipped to stores all over the country. “Tillie” Roome Littell also began to contribute recipes and crafts to women’s magazines like “Table Talk” and “The Delineator.”
Unfortunately, the Miranda hit an iceberg and Will had to head home empty-handed and without glory. According to the story, he hitched a ride on a fishing boat, sleeping on a pile of fish.
Matilda wasn’t too happy with her husband arriving back in New York broke and smelling like fish. Nor was Will feeling too adequate in light of his wife’s financial success. The couple was divorced and Matilda went on to work as a secretary to stockbroker J. Edward Addicks, providing the man with real-estate advice that made him quite wealthy.
Eventually, Matilda invested in her own piece of real estate. Mount Airy, a Southern Maryland home built by the Calvert family, would finally allow her to live out her dreams of being the “mistress” of a Southern home. And she played the part – her biography talks of her managing sharecroppers who would be “dishonest if not supervised” … oh brother.
Matilda’s second marriage was to an Upper Marlboro neighbor, Percy Duvall, in 1908. It was during this marriage that she compiled the Melwood Cookbook.
Mrs. Duvall belonged to a large social network that allegedly included U.S. Presidents, diplomats, politicians, and businessmen. Duvall’s cooking was renowned. Recipes from the cookbook frequently appeared in The Prince George’s enquirer and Southern Maryland Advertiser. To bring in more income, Duvall began opening her home for meals to business travelers. She renamed the mansion Dower House to avoid confusion with Mt. Airy in Montgomery County. The popularity of Dower House led to a real-estate offer that the savvy businesswoman couldn’t refuse. She sold Dower House to newspaper editor Cissy Patterson in 1931. She forever regretted it.
This ice cream recipe states that “this is the way chocolate ice cream is made in France.” Matilda did indeed visit France in the early 1900′s, when she went to Paris to take operatic singing lessons. Despite the recipe containing a staggering cup of flour, I followed formula. The end result tasted like a chocolate frosty! This recipe is best served directly from ice cream maker as it will freeze quite hard.
Matilda’s second marriage eventually ended in divorce as well. A 1930 census lists the value of her estate as $40k and the value of Percy Duvall’s at $50 dollars. At the time of his death in 1958, he was residing with his twin sister.
I couldn’t figure out what became of Will Littell. There is still debate over whether the captain of the Miranda, Dr. Frederick Cook, ever actually reached the North Pole. To some, he is considered a bit of a charlatan, although he has his defenders.
Matilda died in 1964, just a few weeks shy of 100 years. Who knows whether the Melwood women ever did build their clubhouse.
Recipe:
1 Quart rich milk
1.5 Cup sugar
1 Cup flour
.25 can cocoa (an antique cocoa can of the era appears to be 8 oz)
vanilla extract
.5 Cup butter
1 Pint cream
1 additional Pint milk, added the last thing
Bring milk to a boil, but do not allow it to boil before adding sugar and flour mixed and smoothed with the cocoa. When this is smooth, stir in the scalded milk. Allow to boil a minute, or until the milk is thickened. Remove from the fire and add the butter. When this is melted, add the vanilla and cream. If this is not sweet enough, add additional sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the cream and the additional pint of milk just before freezing. This is the way chocolate ice cream is made in France.
*some accounts list Mrs. Roome’s first name as “Matilda O.” I was unable to verify the correct name.
2018 seems to be the year of sweets for Old Line Plate. I haven’t had any complaints yet so I’ll keep going with that. For this simple (and delicious) recipe I reached for my trusty copy of “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland.”
Rose Hill Manor is just the kind of estate that EDBM author Frederick Phillip Stieff loved to rave about. Built in the Greek Revival style in the 1790s by Ann Jennings Johnson and her husband Major John Graeme, Rose Hill Manor is most famous for being the home of Ann’s father Thomas Johnson, who was the first governor of Maryland, from 1777-1779. The elder Johnson had been a friend and supporter of George Washington, had been involved in the planning of Washington D.C., and was a delegate in the Maryland Constitutional Convention. Some of the outbuildings at Rose Hill are still standing, including an icehouse, a smokehouse, and a laundry. In the 1970s, a log-cabin was moved to the property from elsewhere in the Frederick area. The slave-quarters are no longer standing but the Graemes and Johnson had all been slave-owners, and at least 30 people had been enslaved at Rose Hill.
Postcard, Rose Hill Manor Inn
Maryland Historical Trust documents about the property make sure to mention that George Washington did NOT visit Johnson there. Washington had died by the time Johnson moved in with his daughter, or else I am sure he would have visited Rose Hill, since that guy went everywhere.
From 1915 to about 1935, the manor was operating as an inn under the management of “The Misses Reynolds.” “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” was published in 1932, and the five “Rose Hill Manor Inn” recipes included in the book are attributed to the Reynolds: “Brownies,” “Chicken Sago Soup,” “Ginger Pears,” “India Chutney Sauce,” and “Fried Chicken.”
I couldn’t find out very much about these Reynolds sisters. They came from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Lydia Jane (“L. Jane”) was the eldest, born in 1857, Clair was born in 1864. Their niece Agnes Rice was also involved in the operation of the business, as was a black servant named Bessie Ceaser. The census refers to the inn as a “Tea House,” perhaps because that was a common business for women to operate. After their inn-running adventure, the sisters returned to the Scranton area where they lived until the 1940s, Clair passing away in 1941 and L. Jane in 1948.
Rose Hill Manor is now a park and museum with an exhibit on the life of Governor Thomas Johnson, “as well as the history of agriculture and transportation in Frederick County.” They have a lot of programming geared toward children.
These brownies were excellent despite my not having an appropriate pan, and the center staying a little gooey. I used what I had on hand – some 74% baking wafers. I enjoyed them with friends and we wondered about the crusty tops. It turns out that is from the egg-whites and sugar – kind of a type of meringue. Now you know!
Even with the wet center and cutting the brownies like pie, the entire pan got eaten IMMEDIATELY. This leaves room on my kitchen counter for yet more desserts so stay tuned.
Recipes:
2 eggs
1 Cup sugar
.5 Cup flour
.5 Cup melted butter
2 oz chocolate
1 Cup nuts
Beat eggs and sugar together, then beat in flour, mixing well. Melt butter & chocolate & beat into eggs. Stir in nuts. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°.
Beat eggs and sugar together, then beat in flour, mixing well. Melt butter & chocolate & beat into eggs. Stir in nuts. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400°.
If there were definitive proof that fudge was invented in Baltimore, we’d never hear the end of it. Tourists would be encouraged to eat fudge-dipped crabcakes or whatever, and all the billboards in the city would be like “Sprint is the favorite network of fudge-lovers!”
Nevertheless, there is some intriguing evidence that ties the origins of fudge to the city. This was complete news to me when I recently checked out Stella Parks’ “Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts.” I was barely home from the library before I was contacting Atomic Books to order a copy of my own.
The cookbook contains a lot of historical background essays similar to some on this blog – but unlike Old Line Plate, “Bravetart” contains recipes that are actually useful. Aside from assuaging some of my dessert hang-ups (Hint: I grew up near the Hostess outlet), I found a lot of information that will help improve my baking, and this blog by extension. What put it over the top for me though was the quality of the research. I actually gasped aloud when I read Parks’ conclusion about the origins of the Oreo brand name.
One of the recipes in the book is for “Baltimore Fudge.” After years of researching Maryland food, it’s always exciting to find new things I was completely unaware of.
A 1995 piece in the Los Angeles times by Baltimore-born writer Steven Raichlen disseminated the Baltimore origins of fudge as reported by food historian John Mariani in the “Dictionary of American Food and Drink.” “When it comes to fudge,” Raichlen wrote, “Baltimore isn’t a bad place to come from.” Of course, the Sun reprinted that article so that readers could bask in this comforting fact.
The prevailing fudge origin story centers around a Vassar student, Emelyn Hartridge, who popularized the confection on campus; it then spread to other schools. Fudge-making remained associated with women’s colleges for decades. Hartridge, it turns out, is said to have gotten the recipe from a schoolmate’s cousin in Baltimore. (That’s how recipes go, especially sweet ones.)
Harrisburg Pennsylvania Daily Independent, 1903
By 1903, recipes appeared in regional newspapers for “Baltimore Fudge.” The women’s magazine The Delineator in 1907 referred to “…Baltimore caramels, a confection afterwards known as ‘January Thaw’ and now called ‘fudge.’” The “January Thaw” term is a little hard to search, but it doesn’t seem to have been as prevalent in old newspapers and cookbooks as “Baltimore Fudge” or “Baltimore Caramels.” When I surveyed other 19th-century recipes, it appeared that the major difference between the “Baltimore” chocolate caramels and others was that the Baltimore recipes usually don’t contain molasses.
Chocolate was primarily consumed in beverage form in the early days of the United States, and was most popular as a breakfast. The chocolate caramels that became popular in the mid-1800s required better control of heat. I won’t get on too much of a chocolate tangent but needless to say, there was a lot going on.
Candy and confection caught on more as the price of sugar went down and the quality of cooking technology improved. Its been written that 19th-century Baltimoreans tended to eat a lot outside of the home. Sweets like fudge could be had right alongside oysters in busy downtown markets.
Baltimore Sun, 1877
Confection recipes appeared in trade magazines for hotels and the like, but confectioners also had their own trade magazines. Books like “The confectioners’ hand-book,” printed in London in 1883, offer up fascinating detail of the processes involved in 19th-century candy-making.
An 1865 book, “The Art of Confectionery,” suggested that candy making was becoming an exciting pastime for housewives:
“While the preparation of soups, joints, and gravies, is left to ruder and stronger hands, the delicate fingers of the ladies of a household are best fitted to mingle the proportions of exquisite desserts… It is absolutely necessary to the economy of the household that this art should form a part of every lady’s education. This fact is becoming generally acknowledged, and the composition of delicate confections is passing from the hands of unskilled domestics into the business and amusement of the mistress of the household.”
I definitely have rude and unskilled hands but I gave it my best.
In “Iconic American Desserts,” Parks referenced the ‘caramels’ recipe found in the “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” an anonymous advertising cookbook printed by a ladies’ church group in Baltimore in 1884. I was able to trace that recipe back to the 2nd published Maryland cookbook “Queen of the Kitchen,” by Mrs. M.L. Tyson in 1870.
The first Maryland cookbook (1859) was by killjoy Elizabeth Ellicott Lea who was not likely to promote frivolous treats like chocolate caramels. Her only chocolate recipe is for a drinking chocolate “for the sick.” You had to be sick to get chocolate or liquor in the Lea household.
After appearing in “Queen of the Kitchen,” the chocolate caramels recipe was subsequently printed in the classic “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen,” by Mrs. B. C. Howard in 1873. Mrs. Charles H. Gibson also included it in her 1894 “Maryland and Virginia Cook Book.” In fact, that book includes SEVEN slight variations on the recipe. This made me decide that Mrs. Gibson is kind of irritating.
In the Los Angeles Times, Raichlen shared a fudge recipe from his grandmother. Although the ingredients are essentially the same, the order of operations involves dissolving the sugar before stirring in the chocolate. This recipe was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun Recipe Finder, where a reader described it as having “a smooth texture with a slight crust on the outside.” This is basically how my own fudge turned out, despite putting all the ingredients straight into the pan.
Stella Parks’ book has an updated Baltimore Fudge recipe which includes some white sugar to decrease the bitterness, as well as far more precise instructions and tips than found in the old Maryland cookbooks. In the years I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve actually grown disillusioned with famous chefs and cookbooks, but I endorse “Iconic American Desserts,”… that is, unless you work for Visit Baltimore in which case… move right along, nothing to see here.
Recipe:
1.5 Lb brown sugar
.25 Lb chocolate
1 teacup cream
.25 Lb butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
“Mix together and boil twenty-five minutes; stir in one tablespoonful vanilla juice before pouring out to cool.“
Recipe from “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” Church of the Holy Comforter (Baltimore, Md.). Ladies Aid Society, 1884
Back when I first made Maryland Fried Chicken for my blog, I became a target of some amusing internet vitriol. The authenticity police took one look at my fried chicken leg served atop a waffle and saw heresy.
Although the disdain seemed a bit over the top to me, I can understand the confusion at its core. I always thought of the chicken/waffle combination as a Southern dish, dispersed our way during the Great Migration.
Waffle suppers had in fact been a popular church dinner dating back to at least the mid-1800’s, and in Maryland, they often featured chicken or “frizzled beef” aka creamed chip beef.
1924 advertisement, Salisbury Daily Times
Carvel Hall Hotel manager Albert H. McCarthy had been a Maryland resident for at least 37 years by the time he prescribed that “Maryland Fried Chicken” be served atop a waffle in “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” (1932, Frederick Phillip Stieff).
In fact, a lot of the times when waffle advertisements or recipes appear in 1930′s newspapers, a distinction is made when the subject is “dessert waffles.” Talbot County resident Miss Mary McDaniel’s recipe for “Chocolate Waffles”, also from Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland, certainly falls into that category. It is the only waffle in that book containing more than a tablespoon of sugar.
Dutch immigrants brought waffles to North America in the 1700s, when they were cooked in an iron over an open fire. According to culinary historian Joyce White, cast iron waffle irons can be commonly found among the kitchen items in 18th and 19th-century probate inventories of taxable properties.
Waffle recipes varied regionally. In the South, sweet potato waffles became popular. Rice and corn were common frugal additions that also caught on in Maryland. All of the late 1800s Maryland cookbooks include multiple waffle varieties.
The first electric waffle irons hit the scene around 1911 and waffles became easier than ever to make. A Frederick Y.M.C.A. reported raising over $2000 (adjusted for inflation) from a waffle supper in 1913.
Advertisement, 1930
Waffles seem to have experienced another resurgence in popularity in the 1970s. Less than a half a century before, Aunt Jemima ads and the Aunt Priscilla column in the Baltimore Sun promoted racist associations with waffles. The imagery and language can be jarring. In 1975, Harlem native Herb Hudson founded Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles -arguably the most famous purveyor of the classic combination- in Los Angeles. Chicken & waffles’ soul food identity was being cemented – and reclaimed.
If you order a waffle in Maryland today, you are likely to be served a chewy and sweet thick waffle made from pancake batter. I confess to routinely settling for this at diners.
True waffles can be had from the specialists like Connie’s & Taste This. These places frequently offer different sweet varieties like red velvet for the salty sweet set. In this spirit, I decided to go ahead and have some well-salted & honey-slathered chicken with my chocolate waffle. Although I can see the appeal, corn or rice waffles will remain my preference. Savory waffles will go better with chip-beef or chicken with cream gravy.
I’d like to see the chip beef waffle make a resurgence. Everything old becomes new again. Hopefully when it does there will be someone lurking in the shadows, ready to fight a war on behalf of toast.
Recipe:
.5 Cup butter
2 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Cup sugar
1.5 Cup flour
2 egg
.5 Cup milk
.25 Teaspoon salt
2 oz melted chocolate
vanilla extract, to taste
Cream butter and sugar, then add well-beaten eggs. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add flour to eggs, alternating with milk. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. Bake on hot waffle iron. “Serve with whipped cream or XXXX sugar.”
Recipe adapted from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland”
