Easter was almost two months ago, but the fat from the stuffed ham I made has been living on in my kitchen. After rendering lots of lard of varying purity, I’ve learned just how much flavor it can impart when used for sautéing, and how the very faint meatiness actually adds welcome complexity to a flaky tender pie crust. My allegiance to butter is in question – at least until I’ve worked my way through the last of my home-rendered lard.
The rendering process left me with a bowlful of finely-ground pork cracklings, too small to snack on but suitable for cornbread.
The recipe I chose comes from a typewritten manuscript found at the American Antiquarian Society, and available digitally, entitled “Cookbook of Maryland and Virginia Recipes.” This mysterious manuscript contains some recipes that appear in other collections like “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland,” plus others that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Culinary Historian Karen Hess took a look at the manuscript and wrote some notes about its possible date of creation, but she did not recognize the book as anything that had seen publication. That was in 1981 – the year I was born. I’m no Karen Hess but I have the advantage of the digital age. I’ll save my research into this interesting little book for another post.
I chose this recipe primarily because it had a huge ratio of cracklings – maybe impractical for other uses, but this cornbread was for topping chili.
Cookbook of Maryland and Virginia Recipes, American Antiquarian Society
“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.”
This recipe comes from “The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro,” a fascinating cookbook compiled in 1958 by the National Council of Negro Women. The book is organized as a calendar of sorts, with recipes assigned to specific dates. Several recipes in this cookbook have particular Maryland connections, including a pie dedicated to Benjamin Banneker and “Shrimp Boat Maryland,” contributed by the Baltimore chapter of the NCNW. This cornbread recipe falls on March 10th, the day that Harriet Tubman died in 1913.
Writing a biography of Tubman to accompany this post seemed a little bit unnecessary. Harriet Tubman is undoubtedly one of Maryland’s most cherished heroes. Compared to many other figures in American history, she has a large proportion of children’s books written about her and we all grow up with a sense of familiarity with her story.
After making this cornbread I began to think about that, and I did some more research into the actual details of her heroics and her life. I would encourage others to do so – you may be surprised to find how little you truly know.
Harriet Tubman (left) rescued 70 enslaved people on 13 trips back to Maryland
The recipe was contributed to the book by Vivian Carter Mason, the third president of the National Council of Negro Women. Mason’s mother used to make the cornbread for “Aunt Harriet” when Tubman was visiting with the family and sharing stories with the children (including young Vivian.)
Harriet Tubman is believed to be the daughter of a cook, and it is said that she raised money selling food she made. In Beafort, SC, near the site of the Combahee raid that freed more than 750 enslaved people, Tubman “sold Union soldiers root beer, pie and ginger bread, which she baked during the night, after her day’s work,” according to an NPR story.
Reading through the various accounts of Tubman’s life will turn up many contradictions as well as a tragic paucity of information about her enslaved Maryland childhood. At the time of her death, Harriet Tubman was beginning to be forgotten, especially by the white media. In the decades following, her story and legend were built back up to suit different ideas about what makes an American hero. We would all do well to read more and get a sense of the real person behind a new face on currency. We in America love our heroes. When the heroes had been outlaws in our own unjust system the canonization is complicated. Seeking a better understanding of it may just offer a valuable lens for the present.
Recipe:
3-4 slices salt pork
1 cup of plain white flour
3 cups yellow conmeal
1 heaping tb baking powder
pinch baking soda
enough sour milk to moisten ingredients
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 tb brown sugar
Parboil salt pork (this removes some of the salt), drain & pat dry. Fry to a crisp and set the grease aside. Mix dry ingredients and add in beaten eggs followed by enough milk to make a thick batter. Cut up salt pork and add to batter, along with desired amount of pork grease (I used just under ¼ cup). Pour into well greased pan or skillet and bake at 350° until bread shrinks from sides of pan and browns/cracks on top. Serve hot buttered generously.
Recipe Adapted from “Our ‘Aunt Harriet’s’ Favorite Dish”, the Historical Cookbook of the American Negro
With the citizens of Baltimore eager to look forward, the 2016 mayoral election is already an issue that has been generating a lot of interest. That’s as much as I will say on that topic which I am opportunistically using to segue into yet another excuse to bake cornbread.
This corn pone recipe was contributed to “Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland” by James H. Preston, who had served out his two terms as Mayor of Baltimore by the time of that book’s publication. Preston served from 1911-1919, which was an important time for Baltimore in terms of adapting to widespread automobile usage and other urban updates.
“As mayor, Preston established many elements of Baltimore city’s modern infrastructure: the completion of the sewerage and water systems, paving many roads and building others, providing the impetus for the formation of the Baltimore Symphony, and the establishment of a city flag.” – Maryland Historical Society
Preston may be most famous for the formation of a terraced park on a downtown strip of St. Paul street that is now known as “Preston Gardens.” Accounts differ as to the intentions for building this park. According to some, Mayor Preston was a visionary who “felt communities needed ‘a place to congregate, reflect and admire beauty.’” Other accounts describe the park plan as a way to remove a black community under the pretext of it being a ‘slum’ in order to promote segregation downtown.
“…the first clearance of a slum area was completed in 1919 and was followed by James H. Preston’s planned widening of St. Paul Street and the construction of a park (known to proponents as Preston Gardens and to detractors as Preston’s Folly.) This first iteration of slum reclamation set a pattern in which the promise of increased tax revenue motivated site selection more than did housing provision or public health.” – Infectious Fear: Politics, Disease, and the Health Effects of Segregation By Samuel Roberts
At least some of that might sound eerily familiar to informed Baltimoreans of the modern era.
1926 Postcard of Preston Gardens showing parking lot in foreground
Preston was certainly no visionary when it came to race, as this 1911 clip from the Afro-American demonstrates:
The St. Paul Street park lives on and remains beloved by many, even after alternating eras of neglect and restoration. Preston also oversaw the covering of part of the Jones Falls downtown to create the Fallsway. This drastic transformation is often credited as an advance in public health, concealing the filthy water and putting an end to the expensive, deadly floods that the falls occasionally experienced.
Another interesting event I found during Preston’s term was the 1914 “Star-Spangled Banner Centennial.” Five years later, a “Report of the City Officers and Departments“ documents praise for Mayor James H. Preston for devoting his “time and ability” for the planning of the celebration which “reflected the greatest credit upon the people of Baltimore and.. also brought our City of Baltimore to the attention of the world in a way most gratifying to all Baltimoreans…” In light of the continuing pride that Baltimore takes in all things “Star Spangled,” this event has had a lasting legacy.
History rarely leaves us with heroes or visionaries, and frankly neither do elections. The best we can ever seem to do is inch forward and perhaps reflect backwards.
Recipe:
3 Cups cornmeal
1 scant Teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 Cup lard, melted
2 Cups buttermilk
Sift together corn meal and soda. Beat eggs and sugar together, add buttermilk and meal. Lastly, stir in the lard. Pour into hot skillet. Bake at 425 for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Recipe adapted from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland”
There’s no camping like fall camping! And there’s no better camp bread than cornbread.
Once again I turned to Mrs. B.C. Howard for a good camp recipe… if this could even be called a recipe. Really this is just a list of ingredients:
Dry rice you say? Well okay. I mixed the dry ingredients ahead of time. Camp cooking requires wise planning and mise en place.
The first thing I do at a camp site after pitching the tent is getting the fire pit setup in workable order.
On the fly tip for melting butter:
After about 20 minutes I checked on the bread and the top wasn’t cooking fast enough so I took a coal from the fire:
This cornbread was kind of dry and dense but that is not necessarily a bad thing! It went great with greasy eggs – would be perfect with chili.
Recipe:
1 Pint cornmeal
2 Tablespoon flour
4 Tablespoon raw rice
2 eggs
1 tb butter, melted
½ cup milk
Heat up a skillet or dutch oven 4-5 coals under and 6-7 on top, or in the oven at 425° Mix dry ingredients and stir in butter and milk. Beat eggs well & fold into batter. Pour into hot pan, bake for 20-25 minutes. When you can smell it it is done!
Adapted from “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen” by Mrs. B. C. Howard
